Placenta Benefits: What Research Actually Shows About This Alternative Wellness Practice
The idea of consuming placenta after childbirth — a practice called placentophagy — has attracted significant attention in alternative wellness communities over the past two decades. Proponents point to a range of claimed benefits, while mainstream medical and nutritional science has taken a much more cautious position. Here's what the evidence actually shows.
What Is Placentophagy?
Placentophagy refers to the consumption of the human placenta following birth. It most commonly occurs in one of three forms:
- Raw consumption — blended into smoothies immediately postpartum
- Cooked preparation — incorporated into meals
- Encapsulation — dehydrated, ground, and placed into capsules (the most popular modern form)
The practice is sometimes framed as "returning lost nutrients" to the postpartum body, and it does have a long history in some traditional medicine systems. Most other mammals consume their placenta after birth, which is one reason the practice gets cited in wellness discussions — though the nutritional and physiological logic of extrapolating from animal behavior to human benefit is not straightforward.
What Claims Are Commonly Made?
Those who advocate for placentophagy often suggest it may help with:
- Postpartum mood stabilization
- Milk supply and lactation support
- Iron replenishment after blood loss during delivery
- Hormone balance during the postpartum period
- Energy and recovery
These claims are plausible enough on the surface to deserve a closer look — but the research tells a more complicated story.
What the Research Actually Shows 🔬
The honest answer is that peer-reviewed clinical evidence supporting placenta consumption in humans is limited and generally does not support the claimed benefits.
A 2018 review published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology examined available studies and found no scientific evidence that placentophagy provides the health benefits commonly attributed to it. Notably, the review found that the encapsulation process — which typically involves dehydration at relatively low temperatures — may not reliably preserve bioactive hormones or nutritional content at meaningful levels.
On iron content: The placenta does contain iron, but the amount delivered through encapsulated pills is modest. Studies measuring iron content in placenta capsules found that a typical serving provides a fraction of what a standard iron supplement delivers. For someone with significant postpartum blood loss and iron depletion, this is a relevant distinction.
On hormones: The placenta contains estrogen, progesterone, and other hormones. Whether these survive processing and whether oral consumption delivers them in biologically active forms — and at meaningful concentrations — remains poorly established. Hormones consumed orally are subject to digestion and first-pass metabolism in the liver, which can significantly reduce their activity.
On postpartum mood: A small randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial published in Women and Birth (2019) found no significant difference in postpartum mood, fatigue, or bonding between women who consumed placenta capsules and those who received a placebo. While this is a single study with a limited sample size, it is among the more methodologically rigorous attempts to test the claim directly.
On lactation: Anecdotal reports are common, but controlled clinical evidence supporting placenta consumption as a driver of improved milk supply is lacking.
Factors That Shape Individual Outcomes
Even setting aside the limited evidence base, several variables would influence how any individual might respond to placentophagy:
| Variable | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
| Processing method | Raw, cooked, and encapsulated placenta differ significantly in what nutrients or compounds survive |
| Postpartum iron status | Baseline iron levels affect whether any additional iron intake has a noticeable effect |
| Overall diet quality | A nutrient-dense postpartum diet provides a different baseline than a nutritionally poor one |
| Individual hormone levels | Hormonal fluctuations vary widely postpartum; responses to any hormonal input will differ |
| Expectations and placebo response | In self-reported outcomes like mood and energy, expectation effects are well-documented in research |
| Encapsulation source and handling | There are no standardized regulations governing placenta encapsulation services |
A Safety Consideration Worth Knowing
The CDC documented at least one case in 2017 in which an infant developed recurrent group B Streptococcus infection linked to placenta capsules consumed by the nursing mother. This raised concerns about whether the processing methods commonly used adequately address potential pathogens. Unlike conventional supplements, placenta encapsulation is not regulated by the FDA, and there are no standardized safety protocols for sterilization or testing.
The Spectrum of Experience
Some postpartum individuals report feeling meaningfully better while consuming placenta capsules. Others report no difference — and some describe negative experiences, including nausea or headaches. Whether positive outcomes reflect direct physiological effects, placebo response, or simply the attentive self-care often associated with the practice is genuinely difficult to separate without rigorous controlled studies. 🧬
The research base is still thin. The studies that exist are small, methodologically inconsistent, and largely unable to isolate the specific mechanisms behind any effects that are observed.
Where the Science Leaves You
What peer-reviewed evidence currently shows is that the most commonly cited benefits of placenta consumption lack strong clinical support, and that safety considerations — particularly around pathogen risk — are real and worth understanding. At the same time, research in this area is still limited, and absence of evidence is not the same as evidence of absence.
What the research cannot tell you is how any of this applies to your specific postpartum health status, your iron levels, your hormonal picture, your dietary habits, or your individual circumstances. Those are the pieces that matter most — and they're the pieces no general article can fill in.
