Cool Facts About Your Placenta
During pregnancy, 20% of our blood flows through the placenta.
It is an amazing barrier - it fights off and eliminates pathogens, while also allowing antibodies (from the pregnant person) to pass through to the baby.
It allows fetal cells to cross into the mother’s body and they may remain there for decades. That means that your cells may still be in your mother’s body and you will carry your baby around internally for many, many years.
It is the only organ that is created and then discarded, solely for each pregnancy.
The placenta is what nourishes your baby. It is also responsible for eliminating waste, regulating your baby’s temperature, helping to fight potential infections, and building immunity.
By the end of a pregnancy a placenta can weigh up to 2 lbs.
If a placenta was unrolled and laid out flat, the tissue would cover 150 square feet.
The organ is a foreign body to the pregnant person - 50% of the genetic material belongs to the father - yet the body tolerates it. Usually, a body will reject a foreign organ. It is currently unknown how the placenta “tricks” the pregnant body to accept it, but researchers are working on figure it out, as this could help with future success of organ transplants.
The placenta is known as the tree of life. Ask your doctor or midwife to show you after you deliver yours - the veins on the placenta look tree branches and the umbilical cord looks like the tree trunk.
Most mammals will eat their placenta right after birth. Some humans do too. This is called placentophagy. Learn more about that here.
There are many global traditions involving the placenta. Some people bury their placenta (perhaps with a tree or other plants, alongside books or other items), others make art or say prayers to the placenta. Many cultures show great respect to the placenta as a giver of life.
We consulted this amazing book, Like a Mother: a feminist journey through the science and culture of pregnancy by Angela Garbes, for some of the content in this blog post. This is an incredible book, that we would not hesitate to recommend, to anyone who is currently pregnant, or thinking about it. As a professional, and as a person who has given birth, I found it insightful, non-judgemental (this is so important to me) and full of solidly researched information.
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