Do not eat the placenta - Doctor cautions against using organ as home remedy

A senior medical professional is discouraging mothers from taking the placenta after giving birth and consuming it as 'medicine'.

Senior medical officer at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital, Dr Garth McDonald, said that there is a risk of infections and other potential risks.

"I know it may have benefits in terms of stem cell therapy and so on, and there can be some benefits when it is harvested properly. It could be a matter that it can be utilised for health purposes. But to take it and cook it and eat it it would have to be based on a cultural thing and do a deep dive and see what people do with it globally," he said.

McDonald was responding to STAR queries after a young mother told the news team that she recently delivered twins at a local hospital, and a nurse asked whether she wished to take the placenta home.

"Mi frighten so till and mi ask her why mi would wah go home with after birth and she say some mothers want theirs because it has health benefits and dem go plant it. First mi a know dem tings here because mi have other children but dat never bring cross to mi," she said.

"I definitely wasn't going to carry home that and have it a look pon inna mi fridge, but she say it good for my hair and skin and can use make mask. She say all if the baby sick it can help, but mi never bother ask her how," she added.

McDonald said that keeping the placenta is part of the culture of some populations.

"And [it was done] in earlier Jamaica where they would pay more homage to the placenta and maybe want to bury it in their domain, or I really don't know what they do with it. We at the hospital just discard it," he said, noting that it's not local practice to gift the placenta to the patient.

"What we do is weigh and examine it to see if it's complete ... and we check the membrane to see that it's not ragged and we just do a full examination then dispose of it," McDonald said.

But an 83-year-old woman told THE STAR that the placenta was a keepsake for all of her seven pregnancies.

"Mi never have any fridge so mi can't keep it out too long. After a day or so mi boil it and bottle it and it help me with pain and if the baby belly a hurt mi rub some on dem belly and it stop hurt same time. A good summen and a dats why di baby weh born dem time deh did healthy. Dem get bush tea and we make we own medicine," she said.

Earlier this year, international DJ Calvin Harris and his wife Vick Hope had the placenta encapsulated into edible capsules. Rapper Cardi B turned the placenta into keepsake jewellery after giving birth to her fourth child.