Babies Health & Safety Are Eating Placenta Pills Harmful to Your Baby? By Chaunie Brusie, RN, BSN Chaunie Brusie, RN, BSN LinkedIn Chaunie Brusie is a registered nurse with experience in long-term, critical care, and obstetrical and pediatric nursing. Learn about our editorial process Updated on January 27, 2022 Medically reviewed by Alisa Baer, MD Medically reviewed by Alisa Baer, MD Facebook LinkedIn Twitter Alisa Baer, MD, is a board-certified pediatrician, nationally certified child passenger safety instructor, and co-founder of The Car Seat Lady. In her 21 years in the field, Dr. Baer has consulted with many of the leading car seat manufacturers in the design and development of their car seats. Learn about our Medical Review Board Print Mikolette/Getty Images Table of Contents View All Table of Contents The Dangers of Placenta Eating Are There Any Benefits of Eating Your Placenta? Another Risk of Placenta Pills The practice of a mother eating her placenta is nothing new; many mammals eat their own placenta after giving birth, usually as a way to ward off any potential predators who may endanger their offspring. The practice of human mothers eating their own placentas (known as placentophagy), however, is a relatively newer practice that is thought to have originated perhaps in the 1970s, as part of the movement to incorporate more natural birthing methods. Some women choose to consume their placentas on their own in different ways after birth, such as blending their placenta up in a smoothie or cooking and eating it. Many mothers who consume their placentas after birth now choose to use placental encapsulation, which turns their placenta into "placenta pills" that the mother can swallow. After birth, the mother requests to keep her placenta and then uses a company that dries and grinds the placenta then places into pills that are usually stored at room temperature. Mothers who choose to eat their placenta claim the practice helps balance their nutrient levels after birth or wards off postpartum depression. Without any real evidence for the claims, however, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released a report in 2017 that showed that placenta pills may actually pose a very real threat to newborn babies. The Dangers of Placenta Eating In this particular case, doctors were puzzled by an infant who got very sick shortly after birth. The infant had a type of bacteria called group B Streptococcus agalactiae (GBS), which can be deadly to infants. All mothers are screened for the GBS bacteria during their pregnancy because a mother can pass GBS onto her baby during birth. GBS isn't usually harmful to adults, so without screening, a mother might not know that she has it. In this case, however, the mother had tested negative for GBS and after being treated with antibiotics in the hospital, the baby was sent home. Five days later, the infant was back in the hospital with another GBS infection and the doctors couldn't figure out where it was coming from. As it turns out, the mother had started eating her placenta in the form of encapsulated pills that she had paid a company to make from her placenta 3 days after the baby was born. It was reported that these contaminated pills may not have been properly sterilized and likely led to the infection being passed from mother to baby. Are There Any Benefits of Eating Your Placenta? This is one of the first cases where it has been shown that eating placenta can actually be harmful to a newborn baby, but aside from the dangers, there have also been no studies to prove that there are any benefits to eating your placenta either. One study looked at the common claim that placenta pills can boost a mom's iron supply after birth and found that the pills had no effect on iron in the postpartum period. Another Risk of Placenta Pills As the CDC noted in their report, another risk of the use of placenta pills is that the companies that make them do not have to adhere to any sort of regulations or standards, because they don't exist. These companies are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Despite the fact that the company the mother used did utilize high heat temperatures to dry the placenta before grinding it into a powder for the pill, the heat was not sufficient enough to kill off the GBS bacteria. Keep in mind, placenta can contain bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other infectious diseases. And because the commercial preparation process itself is not regulated by the FDA, it can potentially introduce infections. There’s also the risk of someone ingesting the placenta of another person if the organs are accidentally switched during the process. A Word From Verywell If you are considering eating your placenta after birth or are currently eating your placenta after birth in the form of placenta pills, you should be aware that currently, there are no studies that show placenta pills have any benefit to either mother or baby. So be sure to talk to your doctor or midwife about any risks they may pose to your baby, especially if you are breastfeeding and/or have tested positive for GBS at any point during your pregnancy. 3 Sources Verywell Family uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. Farr A, Chervenak FA, McCullough LB, Baergen RN, Grünebaum A. Human placentophagy: a review. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2018 Apr;218(4):401.e1-401.e11. doi:10.1016/j.ajog.2017.08.016. PMID:28859955. Buser GL, Mató S, Zhang AY, Metcalf BJ, Beall B, Thomas AR. Late-onset infant group B streptococcus infection associated with maternal consumption of capsules containing dehydrated placenta — Oregon, 2016. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2017;66:677–678. doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm6625a4 Gryder LK, Young SM, Zava D, Norris W, Cross CL, Benyshek DC. Effects of human maternal placentophagy on maternal postpartum iron status: a randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled pilot study. Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health. 2017;62(1):68-79. doi:10.1111/jmwh.12549 By Chaunie Brusie, RN, BSN Chaunie Brusie is a registered nurse with experience in long-term, critical care, and obstetrical and pediatric nursing. See Our Editorial Process Meet Our Review Board Share Feedback Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! What is your feedback? Other Helpful Report an Error Submit Featured Video