Yes, I kept my placenta.

Yes I kept my placenta. It belonged to Toby and me so why wouldn't I want it? Besides, do you know what my placenta did? Let me tell you about my placenta.

Placentas are awesome. According to Wikipedia (so scientific, I know), "The placenta is an organ that connects the developing [baby] to the uterine wall to allow nutrient uptake, waste elimination, and gas exchange via the mother's blood supply." Further, the placenta plays a key role in determining the length of pregnancy.

So, basically, my placenta was responsible for feeding my son and keeping him alive and healthy. It did a great job at that, if you ask me. However, I have a love:hate relationship with my placenta because one thing it didn't do a great job at was managing my sugars. My placenta gave me "diabeetus." You see, the placenta produces its own glucose, Toby produced glucose and I produce glucose. My body couldn't manage all three at the same time, thus, enter diabetes. So, while I appreciate all the work the placenta did to keep Toby nourished, I'm kind of miffed that it couldn't do me a solid and allow me to consume whoopie pies throughout my pregnancy.

I kid, I kid. But, with the diagnosis of diabetes we really had to monitor my placenta to make sure it was remaining healthy. People who have diabetes run the risk of their placenta breaking down earlier than usual, or not working as efficiently. So, throughout my pregnancy, I had to be mindful that I was taking care of Toby and my placenta.

There are many things one can do with a placenta. Some people eat it (um, no thanks), some people have it dehydrated and made into pills that they take as vitamins, others make jewelry out of it, some plant it, and some make art with it.

We did the two latter.

If you want to keep your placenta there are a few things you need to know. First off, we had to make sure all the medical personnel in our delivery room knew that we wanted to keep it as they are usually disposed of shortly after the birth of your baby; it is considered medical waste. Further, it's not easy to leave the hospital with an organ so we had to sign consent forms so we were able to take it with us. You basically take it home in a red hazmat doggy bag.

Being that Aaron and I are both nature lovers, we knew one thing we wanted to do was to plant the placenta. So, we went online and ordered a Hawthorn Tree, the tree of May (Toby's birth month.) The hawthorn is a beautiful flowering tree that blooms in late spring/early summer (just like Toby) and is known to attract birds. When this tree arrives (it won't be shipped until late fall when it's the best planting time) we are going to bring it to camp and plant the tree along with the placenta. Each time we go to camp, Toby will be able to watch his tree grow and know that his placenta nourished the tree, just like it nourished him.

We also wanted a way to keep the memory of the placenta close to home so we went online to find ideas for artwork. Of course YouTube offered ways to do this. So we made a "placenta tree of life" using acid free canvas and the placenta as a "stamp" per se.

I've never been so sentimental in my entire life. I guess having a baby grew this Grinch's heart. After talking a lot about it, Aaron and I decided we really wanted to memorialize our placenta. After all, when you think of the miracle of life/birth you have to understand what an integral role the placenta plays in all of it.

Warning: If you proceed past this point and you have a weak stomach, I would turn back now.

So, this is the placenta. It had a pretty big job. If you click on the picture you can see the big veins and capillaries that kept the organ functioning and healthy. The long cord is the umbilical cord that connected me to my son. It's just so neat to think that not only did I grow a baby but, my body made a brand new organ. The human body is so amazing.

The first print I made was just the "blood print" for his scrapbook.

Then I painted the placenta with water-based paint

and I kept the cord natural (blood)

I pressed an 11X14 acid free canvas on the placenta 

This is the finished product. I had it professionally framed with special glass to protect it from the sun and air as the trunk of the tree (umbilical cord) is blood and would have faded over time.

We will also make a day of planting our tree and burying the placenta this fall. We'll be sure to take pictures of the tree and its progress as it grows with Toby.

So, at the risk of sounding like a total weirdo, I think it's the most beautiful thing we could have done. Many people may think it's gross or odd that we chose to keep our placenta so, feel free to judge us and throw your placenta away. We couldn't think of a more beautiful way to welcome Toby to the world than planting a tree in his honor and creating art that one day he may appreciate. The process of doing this was very theraputic for me. As I said, I really enjoyed all the beauty of pregnancy; this seemed like one final way to honor the miracle of birth.