DENVER, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- Some new mothers say consuming their own placenta after birth provides a natural medicine to help beat postpartum depression and the more common baby blues.
"This is perfectly made for you, by you, with your own hormones," said Tamara Guida, a Denver a mother of three who says she believes women who eat their placenta -- raw, cooked or in pill form -- can avoid a hormonal crash.
"I tried it with my second (child) and really just had a great recovery, better than my first, and I really started believing in the practice," she told KMGH-TV, Denver.
"[In] Eastern cultures it's very common. In Western culture it's still considered alternative medicine," said Guida, who said she researched the idea after her midwife suggested it.
Guida says her experience motivated her to start a business -- Fruit of the Womb -- helping other women turn their placentas into pills.
Advocates acknowledge there's no scientific proof the practice works, with little research and no U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval.
"A lot of the home remedies that people use have just come from their moms or grandmas and this is just another one of those," said Shannon Ambrose, a labor and delivery nurse who took pills made from her own placenta by Fruit of the Womb after the birth of her second child.
Most Denver hospitals said they would allow new mothers to take their placenta to have pills made, KMGH-TV reported.
