Placenta Encapsulation with Music City Doulas on WSMV News Channel 4

Описание: Tracy Kornet: You may have heard of midwives but do you know what doulas are? They are hired to help support a family after the birth of a baby. Some doulas in Music City are performing a unique technique which involves the placenta and it is believed to help a new mom get her hormonal balance back.

Some women are fortunate to have their mom's help when she brings home a new baby. Others hire the help of a night nurse or nanny. (Music City Doulas offers postpartum doulas to help support in the home after the birth of a baby)

But more women in Middle Tennessee are requesting the duties of a doula.

Ashley Stebbins: A doula is non-medical support for families as they go through pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. I help a lot with any questions they have about feeding their baby, about normal sleep patterns, about their bleeding.

Tracy: Ashley Stebbins is the founder and co-owner of Music City Doulas, but today, she looks more like a scientist than a baby swaddler. Stebbins is spending her second straight day in the kitchen of a client, cleaning, grinding and encapsulating her client's placenta.

Ashley: We steam it in lemon and ginger, and then we slice it into thin pieces, and put in the dehydrator overnight. On the second day, we grind it into fine powder then put it into capsules."

Tracy: We (WSMV News Channel 4) followed Stebbins through the two-day process called placenta encapsulation, which is believed to have short and long term benefits for the mother who will later ingest the pills.

Ashley: The anecdotal benefits of this is that it can support moms after they deliver, helping with postpartum depression or postpartum mood disorders, it can help increase their milk supply, it can help improve their energy and can help them heal faster from birth. The whole purpose is to balance the hormones after giving birth to the baby.

Tracy: Stebbins says there is no scientific research yet to back up its benefits, but a version of placenta encapsulation has been used in China for thousands of years.

Ashley: She's getting her own hormones back. Just like with pregnancy, the hormones are all over the place. The whole purpose and goal of this is to stabilize her hormones. These are her very own hormones, made by her own body.

Tracy: Now you may wonder how one gets the placenta home in the first place. The clients transport it themselves with a transport kit, which is sent to the client prior to delivery. Stebbins says they follow the same health organization standards for transporting an organ. Placenta encapsulation costs just a few hundred dollars.

Read more: http://www.wsmv.com/story/31960680/ne...