Traditional Chinese Medicine

Key Points

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) does not recommend placenta ingestion for postpartum care in the ancient texts
Newer editions of Chinese Medicine books do not directly reference any ancient TCM text sources for recommending placenta use in postpartum women

TCM has clear indications on prescribing properties for postpartum women, and placenta ingestion is contraindicated according to these indications
Scholarly review into ancient Chinese cultural practices shows the historical customs with placenta, and it is very clear that the traditional Chinese postpartum practice was ritual burial of the placenta

Common Myths involving TCM and placenta consumption

A common misunderstanding with the new trend of placenta encapsulation is that it is a form of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). While placenta is mentioned in ancient TCM texts as a rarely used and potent kidney and lung tonic, and primarily used for men, it never called for routine use for postpartum women (Selander et al. 2013, Hayes 2015, Coyle et al. 2015, Young et al. 2010). It is important to note that TCM has very specific prescribing properties recommended for postpartum women, and the properties that placenta contains are directly contraindicated to these (Wilms 2016).

Bensky’s Materia Medica reference to placenta consumption

Dan Bensky’s Materia Medica is often cited as the definitive reference for TCM placenta use postpartum. However, this source is not a reference solely from traditional use. Bensky’s Materia Medica draws from a wide range of sources, both classical and modern. He includes modern references to the hormonal content and their effects on lactation, and even with these, does not directly cite any modern valid research sources. In addition, Bensky does not cite a direct TCM text source for his recommendation of placenta use postpartum (Bensky and Gamble 1993).

Historical expert on Chinese medicine and placentophagy

Given that TCM is a two thousand year old system of medicine, it is important to uphold the integrity of this ancient and complex system of medicine by deferring to a Chinese medicine historian who has translated the original texts, and has extensive scholarly experience in gynecology, postpartum care and ancient Chinese customs with the placenta, such as Sabine Wilms. Dr. Wilms has done PhD research in Asian studies and medical anthropology, and has translated numerous ancient Chinese medical texts. She has also taught at the National University of Natural Medicine, at the College of Classical Chinese Medicine. On her website, Happy Goat Productions she discusses placentophagy, supposedly as a part of modern TCM in the US, “As a critical historian who has spent literally decades immersing myself in the classical gynecological literature from China, with a special interest in postpartum recovery and a painfully long Master’s Thesis written on the topic of Placenta Burial in Early China, statements like these concern me greatly.” She states that maternal placentophagy is “NOT a traditional Chinese medical practice and must not be promoted as such to unsuspecting patients who trust us to care for them safely and confidently with treatments that have undergone the critical tests and experiences of many centuries and thousands of highly educated professional physicians.”

Dr. Wilms’ research into traditional Chinese practices involving the placenta is extensive. She explains the cultural context from the ancient records, “The connection between the placenta and the child that was wrapped in it during its time in the mother’s womb is a theme of great importance in early Chinese medico-religious literature. In fact, placentas are regularly mentioned with a very different intention than their consumption as medicine, namely in the context of placenta burial charts and instructions on how to safely dispose of them by burial, to avoid harm to both the mother and the baby by offending all-powerful spirits. I should know because I wrote my Master’s Thesis on this topic.”

As far as the ancient Chinese medical texts on maternal placenta consumption, Dr. Wilms states, “I have never seen any evidence at all in historical sources of women consuming their own placenta. In other words, placenta was a rare medical ingredient that was collected, prepared, and sold by a few elite pharmacists to strangers with no connection to the original human source. In all texts, it is emphasized that the placenta must be collected right after birth and must come from a strong healthy mother free from disease. Especially the exposure to “fetal toxin” 胎毒 in the mother’s womb will render this substance harmful!” Her research explains the rare use of placenta in the ancient texts, and only indicated for non-postpartum patients and conditions. It was never used as a single ingredient but always regarded as a powerful medicinal that had to be carefully added in small amount to complex prescriptions with lots of other ingredients. In summary, she says, “there is no evidence in Chinese literature at all of women consuming their own placentas and of women consuming placenta as a standard treatment for postpartum recovery.” Dr. Wilms discusses on her website the instruction from the ancient texts on the specific medicinal properties that postpartum women need, and highlights the contradiction of giving placenta during this time, as placenta was considered a potent and potentially toxic substance, “The practice by some contemporary Chinese medicine practitioners to recommend placenta encapsulation to postpartum women as a standard traditional Chinese medicine treatment for postpartum recovery directly contradicts the message from the classical texts. Not only is there no historical precedent for this practice, but the classics are very clear on the dangers of giving the wrong treatment to women during this extremely vulnerable stage in their life!”

For further information on TCM history of placenta use, please visit the website of Sabine Wilms, PhD, and her blog on placentophagy and Chinese Medicine: https://www.happygoatproductions.com/blog/2016/5/11/placentophagy-and-chinese-medicine

Refrences

Bensky D, Gamble, A. (1993). Chinese Herbal Medicine: Materia Medica, Revised edn. Seattle, WA: Eastland Press.

Coyle, C., Hulse K., Wisner, K., Driscoll K., Clark, C. (2015). Placentophagy: Therapeutic Miracle or Myth? Arch Womens Ment Health. October; 18(5):673–680

Hayes, E. H. (2016) Consumption of the Placenta in the Postpartum Period. JOGNN 45, 78–89.

Selander, J., Cantor, A., Young, S., Benyshek, D. (2013): Human Maternal Placentophagy: A Survey of Self-Reported Motivations and Experiences Associated with Placenta Consumption, Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 52:2, 93-115

Wilms, Sabine. “Placentophagy and Chinese Medicine.” Happy Goat Productions. May 2016. Accessed August 2018. https://www.happygoatproductions.com/blog /2016/5/11/placentophagy-and-chinese-medicine

Young, S. M., & Benyshek, D.C. (2010). In Search of Human Placentophagy: A Cross-Cultural Survey of Human Placenta Consumption, Disposal Practices, and Cultural Beliefs. Ecology of Food and Nutrition 49(6), 467-484

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