Eating placenta capsules: ‘It made an amazing difference’

“I was ready to try anything to avoid the bad baby blues and postnatal depression I had after my first baby, six years ago,” says Gaëlig, a French woman who has lived in Ireland for a decade.

So when she heard about placenta encapsulation while watching an RTÉ documentary, she decided to give it a go second time around. She hired Sabine Le Boulicaut from AcuBaby in Dublin to collect her placenta from the Rotunda after giving birth to her daughter three months ago.

The hospital is well used to such requests and had no problem keeping it in the fridge until it was collected, she says. Within two to three days, 144 capsules were delivered back to Gaëlig.

“I wasn’t sure what to expect, wondering if I would be able to ingest such a thing. But it was actually alright, as it comes in capsules, and I never got to see the actual placenta. So I didn’t feel like I was eating something gross.”

She started to take the capsules as soon as she got home from the maternity hospital.

“As I was feeling pretty low – the birth didn’t go as planned – I took two capsules three times a day, for the first three days. It seemed to boost my milk production a bit too much, so I reduced to twice a day. And, depending on how I would feel, I would take only one capsule.

“My husband was the first to notice the shift in my mood and my overall wellbeing. It made an amazing difference. I felt I had more energy, better morale and patience. And if I forgot to take them, we would see the difference straight away.”

Gaëlig feels it really helped her to keep her head above water for the first few weeks.

“When I felt I needed them less, I reduced my intake, to finally stop around three or four weeks. I have a few left that I am keeping for the ‘winter blues’, which affects me every year. I want to see if it will make a difference for that as well.”