Inside little-known newborn trend made famous by Calvin Harris & Vick Hope – but not everyone agrees

Scottish Sun

8 hours ago

Joanne Sked, who owns Livingston-based Placenta Solutions, has urged people to stop being squeamish about something so natural.
AU NATURAL Inside little-known newborn trend made famous by Calvin Harris & Vick Hope – but not everyone agrees
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A SCOTS expert reckons Calvin Harris could give pregnant women the push they need - after his wife Vick Hope turned her placenta into edible pills.
The superstar DJ, from Dumfries, 41, who is married to the Radio 1 host, 35, shocked fans when he shared graphic images showing the moments after son Micah was born - including the afterbirth.
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Calvin Harris and Vick Hope got people talking after sharing birth photos.
Credit: Getty
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The couple got the placenta turned into capsules.
Credit: Instagram
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Joanne wants to see more people embrace their placenta.
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The expert hopes Calvin Harris will inspire others to look into placenta.
But Joanne Sked, who owns Livingston-based Placenta Solutions, has urged people to stop being squeamish about something so natural.
The postnatal specialist, 48, said: 'Women back in the day did eat their placenta because it was harder to collect food. It's like going back to the very start.
'It's about not being squeamish about it and embracing it. We eat liver and stuff like that, so why wouldn't we eat our own placenta?
'People shouldn't be shocked because it's natural and if you were to go on a field and walk past a cow that had a baby, you'd see one there.
'A lot of mammals actually consume their placenta after they've given birth because of all the nutrients and things in it.
'Celebrities like Kim Kardashian have too and you know how regular people like to follow celebrities, so I think with Calvin Harris posting about it then it'll maybe get some of the men on board which is a really good thing.'
Joanne studied midwifery from 2014 to 2018 and ended up helping other women as a companion from pregnancy through to postpartum - also known as a doula.
From there she became a maternity nurse and was responsible for helping mums transition to having a baby at home.
She learned about the benefits of the placenta and started her own business that offers all kinds of remedies involving the birthing organ.
As well as different methods of capsules, she sells a Tincture - a product where a small piece of placenta is steeped in alcohol for six weeks.
I paid almost £300 to get my placenta fried up and turned into pills
She also makes oils for cosmetic products and turns umbilical chords into keepsakes.
Joanne said: 'The benefits of postnatal encapsulation is that it can help with postnatal bleeding, with energy levels and it helps with stabilising the hormones.
'When you've had your baby, the HCG hormone level plummets, and having spoken to some women who had not done it and then tried it the second time round, they said that they recognised a considerable difference in taking it, they felt like they had a much a better experience in terms of energy levels and just overall mental health.
'My clients have come back to me and all given positive feedback saying they felt so much better and they believe it's just to do with the capsules.
'I had a lady who recently wanted the placenta put in some oil and I asked her to put that into her facial cream, as it can help with rejuvenation too and the condition of the skin.
'I have discovered the benefits of the placenta and how much this placenta can help women get through things, especially if they're prone to maybe having the baby blues.'
PLACENTA
The placenta is a temporary organ that forms in the uterus during pregnancy.
It attaches to the uterine wall and provides nutrients and oxygen to babies through the umbilical cord.
The placenta starts as a few cells and grows to be several inches long.
The third stage of labour is when the placenta and the bag that held the baby and the amniotic fluid are delivered.
In most hospital units, the third stage is 'actively managed' because it is known that women who opt to have this are at less risk of significant blood loss at delivery. However, others choose a physiological, 'unaided' third stage where breastfeeding and skin to skin contact release hormones that will eventually deliver the placenta.
Some people can push the placenta out. But it's more likely a midwife will help deliver it by putting a hand on the tummy to protect your womb and keeping the cord pulled tight. This is called cord traction.
The placenta will come away, and the blood vessels that were holding on to it will close off as the womb gets smaller to prevent bleeding.
Around one in 50 women need assistance to deliver the placenta.
This is usually done with an epidural or spinal anaesthetic.
Joanne sends a placenta cooling kit out to women so that when they get to the hospital there's instructions in there for the midwife.
She explained: 'The placenta has to be cooled down really quickly to make sure that it's consumable and that there's not going to be any germs.
'I will go and collect it from the hospital and take it from there, it's usually ready within a couple of days. We check the temperature and make sure it's within the range and then we rinse it off with spring water and then we chop it up and dehydrate it for about 14 hours.
'The following day I will grind it down and then it gets made into capsules, so it's really pretty straightforward.
'We can do a traditional Chinese one which is steamed with ginger, lemon and chilli, or we can do a 50-50, so that's half traditional and half regular capsules.'
Joanne said that some women reported that capsules also helped with lactation so that breastfeeding was easier.
Meanwhile, she explained there's stem cells in the blood of the placenta that can preserve cells - with 85 different diseases treated by extracting them.
With so many benefits, the mum-of-three is desperate for people to wake up to the positives of placenta.
She said: 'The baby's benefiting from it as the blood gets all filtered through and sorts out any impurities of anything.
'It oxygenates the baby to keep it alive so it's such an amazing organ. And then for mum, she can consume it and get all these different benefits too.
'They used to just cut up the placenta and bin it. Even the midwives in the hospital themselves are a bit squeamish about it still.
'It's time we embrace it for all of the amazing benefits.'