It’s not for the faint of stomach, but, anecdotally, more women are practicing placentophagy — consuming their placentas after giving birth.

“It’s invaluable,” said Ashley Short, 32, of Archbold, Ohio. “God gave that to you for a reason. We’re the only mammal that doesn’t eat it. What does it tell you? We should be eating it.”

There is limited research on placentophagy, and what is available is, more or less, inconclusive, said Dr. Kent Bishop, an obstetrician at ProMedica Toledo Hospital.

The placenta is an organ, produced during pregnancy, which filters nutrients and oxygen from the mother to the baby and also filters waste away from the baby for the mother to get rid of. After a baby is born, the placenta is expelled.

Unless a mother asks to keep the placenta, it is labeled as medical waste and discarded.

Women have been known to keep the placenta and bury it or plant it in a garden with a tree atop. Sometimes, too, women take home the placenta and use it to create art — like a stamp on canvas.

In various studies of women who have, in some form, consumed their placentas report various health benefits — no postpartum depression, pain mediation, and an increase in their milk supply.

“These are women that are really trying in their hearts to do what is best and to help their baby, but there are so many things we need to focus on as a health system,” Dr. Bishop said. “There’s not great science behind it.”

One article which reviewed 10 past scientific articles and studies, published in May in the Archives of Women’s Mental Health, has drawn attention from media nationwide. The six-page review, compiled by researchers at Northwestern University, looked for benefits and risks of placentophagy and, ultimately, found that, “despite the many claimed benefits of placentophagy, it is unclear whether the consumption of the placenta is advantageous.”

Placenta consumption is not new — Dr. Bishop said the practice dates to the 1500s — but with celebrity endorsements and more people looking for holistic medical practices, the practice has become more popular, though certainly not mainstream.

“Most people who are interested are really natural and holistic,” said Ms. Short, a mother of two. “There are a lot of us, we just kind of stand in the same corner. We find each other and we stay together because everyone else thinks we’re weird.”

Dr. Bishop said none of his patients have asked him about placentophagy. If a patient did, he said he wouldn’t be able to discourage them, but would ask why they were interested in consumption — if there was a particular medical reason. If a patient expressed an interest in raw placenta consumption he said he would not recommend that.

“I’d be concerned if you had a raw piece of placenta that comes directly out; it’s not delivered in a sterile environment,” Dr. Bishop said. He noted that some placenta can be infected.

“I’m not advocating for it, but can’t argue against it as long as it’s prepared,” he said. “I’d want it to be reputably prepared. ... There’s not a lot of science about it one way or the other.”

For Ms. Short, the idea of placenta encapsulation wasn’t something she thought about with the birth of her first child, a girl, who is now 5. When her son, now 2, was born, she’d learned more and, as a birth photographer, seen more, and was 100 percent committed to try.

For the Shorts, the only concern was finding someone who was knowledgeable about safely handling the placenta to avoid any risk to Ms. Short or the person preparing the capsules. The family found a woman in Michigan who was certified and offered the service, for $200. After Ms. Short gave birth, the woman drove to pick up the placenta, processed it, and shipped it back to the family.

For encapsulation, placentas are typically steamed and dehydrated before being put into a coffee grinder or food processor to make a powder. The powder is then put into gel capsules for consumption.

Ms. Short reported having serious postpartum depression after the birth of her first child, and none the second time. Although the birthing scenarios were vastly different — the first was easy and the second, she said, was “traumatic” — she attributes the positive feelings to the pills.

“I don’t know what else it would be,” she said.

Tasha Grieser, 25, of Archbold, also a mother of two, consumed her placenta after each of her children’s births. With her daughter, the older of the two, she had her husband prepare the placenta powder for her. They did not opt to use capsules, but rather kept the powder in a container, and mixed a small amount into Ms. Grieser’s daily yogurt, she said.

After the birth of their son, the family knew they wanted to do it again, but thought to try a raw smoothie first. Her husband made for her a strawberry smoothie when she got home from the hospital and, within an hour, Ms. Grieser said, her milk supply came in.

Consuming raw placenta begs the question: “But what did it taste like?”

“I didn’t taste it in the smoothie,” she said. “The biggest problem was that I wasn’t sure if the chunks were strawberry or the other thing.”

The powder though, she said, tastes like burnt meat.

“You can taste it. You do have to have a stronger stomach to do powder,” she said.

Both Ms. Short and Ms. Grieser said they’ve saved some of the pills and powder to use at the onset of menopause. Anecdotally, the nutrients in the placenta are said to help mitigate the symptoms.

Although both mothers said they would elect to consume their placentas again, it’s not for everyone.

Cecilia LaBonte, a Toledo native living in Indiana, learned that the hard way.

“I study mammals, that’s where my background is. I kind of thought, every mammal does this, we should, too,” she said. “… A part of me was like, that’s so hardcore I want to do it. It’s so weird and gross and I totally want to do it.”

When Ms. LaBonte, 38, found out she was pregnant with her daughter, who just turned 1, she recalled an article she read during her undergraduate studies about a couple who cooked the wife’s placenta and exclaimed it tasted like steak.

Who doesn’t like steak?

After giving birth and coming home, Ms. LaBonte and her husband cleaned the placenta and cooked it. They decided to use it like a skirt steak and put it in a burrito.

“It was so disgusting,” she said. “It was so gross. It was very stringy and gritty and … it’s got a lot of blood vessels. I ate like half of it. I gave the rest to my dog.”

Contact Taylor Dungjen at tdungjen@theblade.com, or 419-724-6054, or on Twitter @taylordungjen.

First Published June 22, 2015, 4:00 a.m.