Since someone just asked me what I thought about a mother eating her placenta, I thought I'd open the discussion here for you all to enter in as well.

Many moms are finding that eating bits of their placenta reduces postpartum hemorr-haging and also postpartum depression. But what does the Bible have to say about doing this? In the list of curses for disobedience in Deuteronomy chapter 28, we read the following:

"Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. And they shall be upon you for a sign and a wonder, and on your descendants forever. Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, therefore ... The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and sensitivity, will refuse to the husband of her bosom, and to her son and her daughter, her placenta which comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of everything in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates." (Deuteronomy 28:45-57, NKJV)

So while scripture does not specifically forbid eating one's placenta, it is mentioned in the context of being cursed rather than blessed. It is also put on an equal plane with eating one's own children (which we know is not an act that El Shaddai condones). 

Perhaps there are some equally good natural (and biblically blessed) means of lessening postpartum depression and hemorrhaging through herbs or other supplements. What are a few of your favorite methods?

Here is another insightful post from the Above Rubies Facebook page. As the AR founder, Nancy Campbell, says, "Many women don't understand the function of the pill, and all women have the responsibility to understand this information."

"When birth control came out in the 70's, the estrogen levels were so high ovulation never happened. The women never released an egg. They found out about 10 to 15 years later, after women started dying that the estrogen level was too high. They stopped adding so much estrogen, but that also left a higher risk of releasing an egg or a higher risk of pregnancy. To counter the risk of ovulation or pregnancy they started adding progestin. Progestin does not prevent ovulation, so what does it do?

"Birth Control with Estrogen and Progestin work together like this:

This post is shared from the Above Rubies Facebook page—a magazine that goes out free-of-charge to over 160,000 women worldwide, encouraging them that children are a blessing, based on Psalm 127. You can subscribe to the magazine here:www.aboverubies.org

"Did you know that most modern women menstruate about 400 times during their childbearing years? Did you know that this is ABNORMAL? God intended the ovaries to have resting times through pregnancy and lactation. Did you know this is one of the reasons why there is such an epidemic of ovarian and endometrial cancer?

"Did you know that a hundred years ago women only ovulated about 100 times in their entire lifetime? Did you know that this is NORMAL for the female body? Did you know that every time a woman gets pregnant and bears a child, her lifetime risk of ovarian cancer drops 10 percent?

"Did you know that women in their childbearing years are meant to be predominantly 'suckling mothers' rather than 'menstruating mothers'? This is far kinder to their female body and how God intended it to function.
Love from Nancy"

And so we see the truth of Psalm 127 confirmed, that "the fruit of the womb is a reward" not a burden!

Whenever we ladies see the first sign of red that signals the start of our "way of women," let's be thankful!  For one, that worship-invoking color is one of the most gorgeous shades of red in the world!  To think that the Creator mixed it up on His palette one day, and then decided to let us women see it every month! 

How grateful we should be to be women!  The reality that parts of our lives are inconvenient and earthy shouldn't diminish our gratitude.  We are privileged!  To be: bearers of life (physical, and emotional by setting the tone of the home), nurturers (through nursing babies and also through our words, "The lips of the righteous nourish many" (Proverbs 10:21), and queens of our homes - each part of womanhood is accompanied with an aspect of glory.  

If tempted to loathe your time of month, remember that you'd much rather have it than not!  It shows you're healthy and everything is working properly, and there will be a possibility for new life to form within your womb sometime in the future.  How wonderful to receive a red "letter" of good news every month! 

It's true that the curse of the Fall has made aspects of womanhood painful (see Genesis 3:16).  But we can choose to transform our response to the discomfort.  Perhaps view cramps as preparation for undergoing childbirth someday - a practice run.  Or express gratitude to the Messiah for the pain He endured on the cross - which was much greater than any menstrual pain we might endure.  Or see it as an endurance challenge which reveals that you can go through great suffering and still come out fine in just a few days!

So, next time you pull out those Pleasant Pads, remember that it's time to be grateful!
Happy Thanksgiving,  ~Melanie

The journey of womanhood has many seasons.  The excitement of spring when the womanly growth first begins to sprout in all its tender delicacy (think of baby leaves just emerging); summer, with all the fruit it yields - babies, vibrant life..., and then comes fall.  Fall, the picture of shucking off the old, making way for the new: "Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies it remains only a single seed, but if it dies it bears much fruit" (as the Bible states in John 12:24).  This is a picture of mature women, putting off the role of themselves being fruitful (having babies), and taking on the role of mentor to younger women around them - sharing all the wisdom they have learned through their years of homemaking (Titus 2:3-5).  And then winter comes.  The time of winding down and not much activity, anticipating the end of life.  Yet it is still filled with splendor.  Like a beautiful tree covered in frost, there is an elegance to old age.  The Bible says in Proverbs 16:31 that "Gray hair is a crown of splendor, if it be found in the way of the righteous."

So, whatever season of womanhood you find yourself in today, let it be glorious!  May you shine today as you live out to the fullest the journey your Creator gave you as a woman - to be a nurturer and life giver in the home, no matter what the season!

Many women do not look forward to their “time of month” or to the travail of birthing children, but a spiritual view of these seemingly unpleasant aspects of womanhood reveals meaning behind the suffering.  The Creator gave women the position of regularly representing the bloody part of the atonement through the cycles of her womb.  The many similarities that exist between the Holy of Holies in the Biblical Tabernacle, where the original picture of atonement took place, and a woman’s womb are striking.  The Holy of Holies was a place of most intimate fellowship with Almighty God, not to be entered by just anyone at any time, and not to be entered without the shedding of blood.