Today we’re talking about Placenta Encapsulation! Our guest today is Michaela Shaw, the woman behind Ostara Birthwork & Botanicals. Michaela is a full spectrum doula serving families in Central & Eastern Massachusetts as well as Rhode Island. She is also a graduate of the Holistic Herbalism Program at Blue Ridge School of Herbal Medicine, Asheville, NC and has studied permaculture + sustainable cultivation practices throughout Central America and the US, and is a practicing herbalist. Placenta Encapsulation is a form of placentophagy, which is the act of consuming part or all of the afterbirth following birth and believe it or not, this behavior is characteristic of the birth giver in the majority of placental mammals. The use of placenta preparations can be traced back to historical and traditional practices in Western and Asian medicine but not necessarily as an individual postpartum remedy for the birth giver. The Centers for Disease Control issued a warning about this practice, which we discuss in this episode, as well.   Families continue to encapsulate placentas and encapsulators continue to argue that the benefits outweigh any potential risks.  We will talk with our guest today about the two main ways to prepare a placenta for encapsulation, safety, training of encapsulators, two to go about getting your placenta to take home if you give birth in a hospital, other times in life where one might ingest placenta capsules or tincture and other ways to honor one's placenta. If you would like to learn more about Michaela and her birth work, botanicals and placenta services, visit ostaracare.com. Her website also includes some additional reading and resources on this topic!