15 Fascinating Photos That Celebrate the Placenta in All Its Gory Glory

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The placenta has been getting a lot of attention in recent years for its supposed healing properties (as Keeping Up With the Kardashians fans know!), but it's still pretty underappreciated as organs go. And that's a shame, according to Dutch photographer Marry Fermont, who has turned her lens to the oft-overlooked afterbirth for a fascinating photo series. Placentas are truly incredible, and it's important to Fermont to highlight how beautiful and necessary the placenta is to the experience of childbirth. 

"Without this organ, there would be no baby," Fermont told CafeMom. "This is why I think it's important to have a photo."

Fermont says the first time she ever saw a placenta was during her midwifery studies. "It was in my first year and we came into class at 8 in the morning and on several desks there was a fresh placenta from that night," she says. "I was so excited, it was the first real thing I saw that had anything to do with birth. I found it so fascinating that this was the home of a baby for nine months!" 

The placenta is indeed pretty fascinating, even if it's not particularly pretty. Read through our slideshow to see some truly unforgettable images, and check out Fermont's blog and Facebook page for more!

Something to Remember

Marry Fermont

"The baby and the placenta are inseparable and it feels weird not to photograph something so important," says Fermont. 

"I love all placentas, but they do differ. Some are more beautiful then others. Most of them look like the tree of life and I think that's so beautiful!"

Blood Simple

Marry Fermont

Did you know: Approximately 20 percent of your blood supply flows through the placenta every minute?!

You're So Vein

Marry Fermont

When veins run over the membranes instead of through the placenta and umbilical cord, it's known as velamentous cord insertion (this happens in just 1.1 percent of cases).

Hormone Helper

Marry Fermont

Not only does the placenta produce hormones that support your metabolism at the beginning of pregnancy, but it also produces hormones that signal the start of milk production at the end of pregnancy!

Double Duty

Marry Fermont

Up to 70 percent of identical twins share the same placenta; these babies are known as monochorionic twins.

Heavy Hitter

Marry Fermont

At the time of birth, the average placenta weighs between one to two pounds and is between eight and nine inches wide. That's no small thing!

Great Lengths

Marry Fermont

There's a lot more to the placenta than you might think, and we mean that literally: The combined length of all the capillaries in your placenta is 32 miles!

One & Done

Marry Fermont

How genius is the placenta? It's the only organ that's considered "disposable" — the body gets rid of it as soon as it's not needed anymore.

Half & Half

Marry Fermont

A biological partnership of sorts, the placenta's composition is 50 percent cells from the mother's body, and 50 percent cells from the baby's body.

Gene Pool

Marry Fermont

Sort of like a fortune-telling tool for your little one's health, the placenta can help doctors to predict autism and other diseases because the organ shares the same genes as your baby.

No Yolk

Marry Fermont

In his book Life's Vital Link: The Astonishing Role of the Placenta, reproductive immunologist Y. W. Loke explains that the placenta is the reason why humans can give birth to live offspring, as opposed to laying eggs. Thanks, placenta!

Culture Club

Marry Fermont

Cultural practices and beliefs regarding the placenta vary widely. Traditions include burying the placenta, eating it, and using the dried powder in medicines.

Miracle Cure

Marry Fermont

The stem cells found in the umbilical cord have powerful healing properties which have been used to treat everything from leukemia to lymphoma.

Common Complications

Marry Fermont

Some of the most common problems in pregnancy are associated with the placenta, including placenta previa, placenta accreta, and placental abruption.

Star Power

Marry Fermont

Celebrities: They're just like us! Or maybe not, because lots of stars have eaten their own placentas after giving birth, including Kourtney Kardashian, Mayim Bialik, January Jones, and Alicia Silverstone. Supposed benefits of eating placenta include help with low milk supply and postpartum depression.