Ho ho. Ha ha ha. Laugh laugh. Giggle.
Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta spent nearly four light-hearted minutes on the new talk show Anderson talking about new mothers eating their placentas. Dr. Gupta said, with all the gravitas in the world, “people say” they eat it to prevent postpartum depression.
People say? Who are those people?
It is an interesting topic, I grant you. Yet, I would have hoped that Dr. Gupta could have perhaps discussed the research more, or lack thereof. I would have hoped that two people with such an enormous audience could have spent perhaps 30 SECONDS of those 4 minutes talking about how serious postpartum depression is, and what the other treatments for postpartum depression might be, especially since this one is not considered by many experts to be an effective treatment for PPD. Maybe I missed it. Maybe it was in a part of the show I didn’t see on this clip.
Here’s what Dr. Marlene Freeman, a reproductive psychiatrist and expert on perinatal mood and anxiety disorders from Harvard and the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Women’s Mental Health said here on Postpartum Progress about consuming the placenta to prevent postpartum depression:
“From an evidence-based perspective, even with a viewpoint open to complementary and alternative therapies, this doesn’t pass the test for women with postpartum illness or at risk for postpartum illness. My concern with this and other unsubstantiated claims about complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatments is that ‘natural’ is often assumed safe and seen as advantageous over more rigorously tested treatments. At worst, a woman with postpartum illness or at risk for it might forego a comprehensive assessment (that she deserves to have), a full menu of options for treatment (that could include more proven CAM treatment options) and careful monitoring of her symptoms.”
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