[Lamplighter]

What do Jenny McCarthy and January Jones have in common ?

The Register-Guard
Lauren Gambino
The Associated Press
5/7/13

Senate approves bill to let mothers keep placentas

SALEM — The Oregon Legislature has agreed that mothers who
have just given birth should be able to take home their placentas.<snip>
Under current state law, hospitals are prohibited from releasing
hazardous medical waste, which includes human placentas.
Some Oregon hospitals, however, have allowed mothers to take home
their placentas for cultural and religious reasons.

Some mothers have their placentas put into capsules,
which they consume in the belief it boosts their energy
and staves off post-partum depression.<snip>

Actress January Jones spotlighted the issue when she claimed that
ingesting her placenta helped boost her energy and get her back to work
just weeks after giving birth.

Experts have said there is no scientific evidence of a health benefit.

“There’s no scientific evidence stating that it’s entirely safe,” said
Dr. Mark Kristal, a behavioral neuroscientist at the University of Buffalo.

Kristal said placenta-eating was first reported in the 1970s
when people living in communes cooked the organ into stew.
The increasing number of American women eating their placentas
today means the fad is back, he said.
<snip>