Placenta Medicine as a Galactogogue: Tradition or Trend?

to 50% of my homebirth clients and up to 10% of the birth center/hospital families ingested their placenta after delivery. There are approximately 20,000 live births per year in the Metro Portland area (Oregon Health Authority, 2011) and a 1.96% homebirth rate in Oregon (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012). This implies that roughly 2,000 mothers per year consume their placenta in Portland alone. One recent study looking at placentophagy primarily in the U.S. and Canada found that homebirth mothers were 25% more likely to engage in placentophagy than mothers delivering in hospitals (Selander, Cantor, Young, & Benyshek, 2013, p. 100). Most babies in the U.S. are born in the hospital. Nevertheless, there does seem to be a trend regarding increased placenta medicine usage among mothers in many communities worldwide.