We were contacted by a woman, we’ll call her Abby, and she wanted to learn more about our placenta encapsulation process. To be honest her email seemed suspicious. You see, in this business it’s not uncommon to receive emails from non-pregnant folks looking to talk about vaginas, sex during pregnancy, and such. Well, as it turned out Abby had valid reasons for being cautious, using an alias to protect her identity, and for contacting us.

Without further ado, Abby shares her story.

Placenta Capsules: Sharing More Than Experience

By Abby Anonymous

I will apologize now for the book, but there is nothing that can be cut from my story. Every word and every line is relevant and important. I never wanted to share my story

What I wanted was answers. I wanted to go back to the day she picked up my placenta and change my mind. I never asked for this.

Now, after talking with Elizabeth, owner of First Coast Doulas, I know without any question that I need to share my story to tell others so they don’t make the same mistakes that I did. I don’t know if the other person knows what happened or if there are more people this has happened to. Maybe if the right people in the community share this blog they’ll see it.

What I really want is for others to beware when hiring someone for placenta encapsulation.

I have to protect my identity because I work in the medical field and do not want to be questioned by my colleagues. They already pick fun at me for choosing a more natural approach to all things. They ridiculed and mocked me about my decision to “eat my placenta”, now I wished I would have never told them. At the time they were just a little annoying, but as you can imagine if they found out about this I would be mortified.

Sharing my truth with people through this blog seems like the right thing to do. Elizabeth was gracious enough to sit down with me and explain her process, step by step. From providing the clients with everything they need to take the placenta home to their protocol for sanitization, and she answered all of my questions that she could answer.

It was 6 days after delivery when I received the call I never in a million years imagined I’d get.

It was the person who I trusted to pick up my placenta and return my placenta capsules to me on the other end of the call. Before she even broke the news to me I could sense something wasn’t right.

What she said next blew me away, “I am sorry, but I think I may have accidentally given you another mom’s capsules by mistake. I can pick the bottle up and bring you your capsules.”

What she said next I’m not sure, did anything really matter after that noise?

I hung up the phone in her face. I got sick. I literally became sick to my stomach and vomited not once, but twice.

I called her back and asked her how the hell it happened, who the other person was, and asked if she had spoken with the other person yet? I wanted to talk to her. I needed to talk to her.

I was terrified and rightfully so.

The risks of taking someone else’s placenta capsules means you risk getting any contagious diseases the other person may have. You also risk your body having adverse effects to the other person’s placenta since its complete make up is unique to the person who grew it and delivered it.

The things I thought that day and in the days since: What about my baby, what if I contracted something awful can I pass it to her through breastmilk? I have to tell my husband and we will have to have protected sex until I know for sure I am safe. Why me? How could I of avoided this?

She said she believes her young son might have switched around the Post-it notes she labels the dehydrators with.

Post-It Notes?

What kind of shit show is she running exactly?

She continued, saying she has never had an issue with her son touching the dehydrators until recently and went on to say he has become a bit obsessed with playing with the dials and labels recently.

So this could have happened before and would likely happen again if she didn’t stop. Who knew what else could have happened. Why was the dehydrator around her son?

To be continued…

Read about what happened next in Placenta Capsules: Sharing More Than Experience, Part 2