Their footprints, baby blanket, or the outfit they came home in are all ways that people have traditionally commemorated giving birth to their babies. Over the last decade, however, new parents have embraced practices that not only commemorate the birth but also their new life as a family and the special bond forged between a mother and child during pregnancy.
According to Today, inspired by celebrities like Kim Kardashian and January Jones, new parents have been encapsulating their placentas. It's “a process that includes steaming, dehydrating and grinding the placenta before placing it into pills for ingestion by postpartum moms,” and now, there's a byproduct of the process that's becoming quite the trend.
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Experts say pass on the placenta.
There is no science-backed evidence that consuming placenta capsules has physical and/or psychological benefits for postpartum women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “The placenta encapsulation process does not per se eradicate infectious pathogens; thus, placenta capsule ingestion should be avoided,” the organization asserts.
For $20 more, why not?
Mom of two Megan Kilpatrick, 32, was set on encapsulating her placenta following the birth of her daughter. She’d watched videos of the process and was surprised by a bonus item that was also available: umbilical cord keepsakes. The tissue is left over from the encapsulation process.
She had never heard of it before but thought, “'For $20 more, why not?' Having your umbilical cord gold plated was an add-on," she said. Along with her new baby, Kilpatrick brought a cooler full of placenta home before she shipped it to the encapsulation company.
Megan told Today that she gave the “heart shaped gold plated preserved umbilical cord” to her husband, who thought the gift was “interesting.”
The cord can be turned into something special.
The practice predates the TikTok craze. Texas mom Carmen Calvo started making umbilical keepsakes in 2011.
“I wanted to give myself the best chance of having a peaceful and well postpartum experience the second time around,” she told Today of how she felt after getting pregnant again five months after giving birth. With nothing to lose, she decided to try placenta encapsulation.
Calvo shared that the umbilical cord doesn’t get included in the placenta capsules. “It only makes sense to make something special with it," she said.
Often her clients will arrange special items from the pregnancy and birth in a shadowbox with the dried cord and others will make Christmas ornaments.
With a long enough cord, Calvo has spelled "LOVE" or even the babies’ names. She also has turned them into hearts or stars.
She loves the natural pattern of the umbilical cord. “You can see the umbilical arteries and vein running through the keepsake, like threads," she explained.
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It's been turned into an art form by one mom.
Casey Merrell, 32, of uCord Keepsakes started by making herself an umbilical keepsake. She went on to become a certified birth worker and placenta specialist. A small part of her training was about umbilical cords. “Through trial and error and practice, I've turned it into more of an art form," she said.
The mom of four is certified in blood-borne pathogens and has a food handler’s license. She sanitizes her work space before starting on the umbilical cord design. "It is essentially a biohazard that I'm dealing with," she explained to Today.
She loves creating keepsakes, but working with angel moms is something she cherishes. “I am honored to create for a lot of babies who don't necessarily go home or don't necessarily live very long, but their moms are able to have this piece of them preserved to have in memory of them or honor of them,” she explained.
