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An Ontario mother who threw her bloody placenta in a public park was just practicing a "holistic" ritual to mark her child's first birthday, the police said.
While hospitals consider placentas as "medical waste", in some homebirthing practices, the body is considered special and "spiritual," according to specialists. Popular rituals include burying it under a favorite plant, tree or shrub, or eating it – a practice that carries risks for mothers and their babies, and that some doctors have said that borders on cannibalism.
On Tuesday, Peel Regional Police issued an alert calling for help from the public to find a woman and a child "in medical distress" after a man who was walking his dog in Sugar Maple Woods Park to Mississauga found a placenta and umbilical cord, with what appeared to be clamps and forceps attached to it, in bushes about three meters from a trail.
The placenta seemed fresh.
After a medical examiner confirmed that the material was human, a cadaver dog trained to locate and track the odor of a rotting human body was sent to search the area, as well as 39, a public search unit, said police sergeant Peel. Matt Bertram.
A few hours after the public call, a 27-year-old woman contacted the police to tell her that the placenta belonged to her.
The woman told the police that she had given birth a year ago at her home, with the help of a midwife. The placenta has been preserved and preserved for "holistic" purposes, police said, before returning to nature on Monday, which would have been the child's first birthday.
"She said that she had frozen it, which is why, a year later, it still seemed fresh," Bertram said.
The police confirmed his story, he said.
"We were glad it was not what we originally thought: someone who throws out a baby, or anything that could have been the case," Bertram said. "We are happy to hear that there was no one in distress."
Among women who are born at home, "the placenta is a" special "and significant part of childbirth," wrote Emily Burns, doctoral candidate at the University of Western Sydney, in 2014 in the Journal of Perinatal Education .
In 51 in-depth interviews with women who were planning or had recently given birth at home, "burial of the placenta is by far the most common use of the organ," Burns reported. "Many women have spoken of the burial as a conclusion of the birthing journey …. It's make it to the ground. "
She noted that many cultures, including New Zealand Maori and Navajo in the southwestern United States, were burying the placenta to symbolize the connection between the newborn and the country of birth.
Another home birth practice is the "birth of the lotus", which involves leaving the umbilical cord uncut and attached to the baby until it dries and separates from itself . The placenta is usually wrapped in a tissue or carried in a special pouch until the cord comes off, which can take up to 10 days.
Lawyers say that lotus birth facilitates the baby's transition to the world, but doctors worry about the risk of infection from keeping the newborn tied to an essentially dead tissue.
"The risks are related to a placenta infection, which can spread to the baby," said Dr. William Schweizer, obstetrician and badociate clinical professor at Langone Medical Center of New York University at Live.
However, one of the most common and increasingly popular placental rituals is placentophagia – eating the placenta.
Advocates say that roasting, dehydrating or even mixing placentas in smoothies improves mothers' mood and energy, soothes hormonal collisions and increases milk flow.
However, a review of 2017 found no scientific evidence of any clinical benefit from placentophage. She highlighted risks of harm, including the possible transmission of serious bacterial infections, such as Group B streptococcal infection, to newborns.
The most popular preparation is the encapsulation method, in which the frozen placenta is cleaned, steamed, dehydrated and then sprayed and placed in capsules to be taken daily. Many people propose to treat the human placenta for more than $ 400.
Although eating placenta may be a personal choice, Health Canada warns that it has not authorized products containing human placenta for human consumption. A placenta is biological material that may contain bacteria or viruses, and the process itself – many private processors working in their own kitchen – can introduce infections.
"The consumption of bacteria or viruses containing human placenta can lead to infections in mothers or their babies, and the risk is higher if a person ingests the placenta of another person," said the author. agency.
At the same time, Peel police said that no charges had been brought against the mother for leaving "proof compatible with delivery" in a public park.
National Park
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