How it's done
I get a lot of questions from expectant parents asking how and what happens to their placenta to get it from it's raw state into it's capsule form. So, below is how it's done.
The first thing that happens is I collect the placenta from the place of birth, so either your home or the hospital. It is crucial that the placenta is cared for after it is born exactly as the instructions provided state otherwise it will not be fit for consumption. When I collect the placenta i measure its temperature to make sure it's cooling down enough in the designated time allowed.
As soon as I get home I either start preparing the placenta straight away or pop in my specific placenta fridge until the morning - a lot of babies are born in the early hours of the morning.
I have a designated placenta kitchen in a room in our annex. It is an isolated room which is only really used for my placenta preparation. I only ever have one placenta in the house at any one time so there is no chance of contamination. Even though my working area and equipment is thoroughly washed and disinfected after every placenta, I do the same cleaning procedure before i start work on a new placenta. After this the work area is covered with parchment paper, then kitchen roll and topped with an inco pad. I then don PPE - gloves, disposable apron, hair net and mask and get the placenta from the fridge.
The placenta is placed in a stainless steel dish which allows me to inspect and wash the placenta. Washing the placenta removes any amniotic fluid, blood, blood clots and meconium, if there is any.
The umbilical cord is cut, any remaining blood still drained and the placenta is ready for the next stage.
If you are having the Steamed Capsules (TCM) this is when the placenta is placed whole into a steamer and steamed for 30 minutes until the fluid turns clear. It also has to get to a temperature of 70c for a minimum of 2 minutes to kill any bacteria, potentially from meconium. It can then be cut up once it's cooled and placed in the dehydrator.
If you have opted for the Simple Method of capsule the next stage is the placenta is cut into very small, thin pieces and placed in a pre-heated dehydrator. Your umbilical cord keepsake is also added to the top tier. The dehydrator must be heated to a temperature of 70c for at least 2 minutes to make sure any surface bacteria and yeast is killed. The dehydrator is then turned down to 55c and left for 14-16 hours. I use a temperature probe to get an accurate reading.
Whilst your placenta is dehydrating every piece of equipment is thoroughly washed and sanitised and then put away in my placenta kitchen. The worktops go through the same cleaning and sanitising process to make sure all blood borne pathogens are killed and any microscopic residue is removed.
After at least 14 hours and the placenta has dried out and passed the 'snap test' - where you can snap the pieces in half with your fingers easily - the next stage can begin, usually the next day.
After cleaning and sanitising all of the worktops again, they are lined with the parchment paper, kitchen paper and an inco pad. the equipment is set out, PPE donned and the last stage of the process begins.
All of the pieces of placenta are broken down and put into a processor and ground down into a powder.
Once the powder is ground enough it is put into the capsules. I use a vegetarian, clear, tasteless capsules in Size 0. Each capsule is separated and placed in the capsule machine. The powder is spread over the capsules, tampered down and the process repeated until the bigger half of the capsule is full. The part of the machine containing the smaller half is placed on the other half and pushed together making a whole capsule. This can be a time consuming process as I can only make 24 capsules at a time.
After the last capsule has been made they are all sorted and checked for any faults and that they are secure. I also count them so I can let you know how many your placenta made. You might expect to yield between 75-250 capsules, depending on the gestation of the placenta.
The capsules are placed into a bottle with a silica gel pack added to keep the moisture from affecting the capsules. The bottle is then labelled with your name, date of preparation and the number of capsules. The bottle containing the capsules, any other remedy you requested and your cord keepsake are them all placed in a box ready for delivery.
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