From the third month of pregnancy, the fetus and the mother maintain completely separate blood systems. This is one of the miracles of the placenta. It both integrates mother and child while also maintaining their integrity as an individual and separate systems. ¹

For example, nutrients and oxygen diffuse from maternal blood into fetal blood, yet, amazingly, baby and mother sometimes maintain different blood types. ¹

The placenta also chooses and transports nutrients needed for the formation of the baby's tissues. It selects these elements from the mother's blood, uses what is necessary and sends it into the blood of the fetus. ¹

For example, malnourished mothers may deliver healthy babies of normal birth weight while suffering themselves from obvious signs of hunger. Additionally, the fetus can use the placenta to signal to the mother that she is in need of more nutrients. ¹

Through the placenta secretes hormones that regulate uterine contractions, making the uterus a comfortable cocoon in which the baby can develop. These hormones also prepare the mother's body to lactate, which will be a baby's source of life postpartum. Thus, the placenta serves as a crucial life resource for the baby both within the womb and after birth and makes maternal and child survival possible. ¹

The placenta is an organ composed of cells, that is performing the choosing, giving/taking, storing and carrying. For example, it knows when there is a need for iron, chooses the element of iron from among other substances and knows how it should be used. It is not a human, but a collection of cells and the fact that a cell can recognize an element is surely a miracle. And what is even more miraculous is that it can take the appropriate material in the required amount and carry it to a particular location. ²

The placenta is the tree of life, they are the joint venture between mother and child. It is these exact functions of delivering nutrients, moisture, and oxygen, that sustain life on Earth, as well as life in the womb. 

The placenta is held in very high esteem in a lot of Asian cultures, and the thought of discarding it without a second thought is very saddening to them. These cultures recognize the extreme importance that the placenta plays in the life of their baby that it is just as important to honor it as it is to honor the baby and the mama.

A mother's placenta is exactly formulated to give her optimal benefits. No other animal meat will come close to helping her as much as her own placenta. The placenta is so rich in nutrients that it is believed to prevent postpartum depression when ingested. It contains iron and all the minerals that a high-quality meat can offer. It is the only meet we can get by giving life, instead of violence ok killing. ¹

Animals of all the mammalian groups: carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores, most all will ingest the placenta of their newborn young. Animals are not aware of the biochemical benefits, yet instinctually they find the placenta extremely palatable immediately after giving birth. It is interesting that the animals that eat their placentas do not eat their helpless young, although the placenta smells, tastes and is genetically identical to the newborn mammal.  ¹

Doctors of traditional Chinese medicine often advise nursing mothers to boil their baby's placenta and drink the broth to improve their milk quality and supply. Ingesting placenta for medical purposes postpartum has been practiced for generations around the world. ¹

By ingesting the meat of the placenta, the new mother is able to replace the minerals from the blood loss after birth. The vitamins and protein ease the strain of the long months of pregnancy on the mother's body and balance her plummeting hormone levels. This organ supports the living baby in the mother's womb, if taken after birth, further supports the offspring by ensuring adequate and flowing milk supply. ¹

Pharmaceutical medicines are a miracle when needed and available, but they do have side effects. A woman who is given oxytocin drugs, methergine or misoprosal to control a hemorrhage will experience an imbalance in her body. Injecting drugs may be necessary to save the mother's life, but how much better is it to use the new mother's own natural resource to protect and heal her? ¹

Ingesting the placenta also helps mothers breastfeed, and, according to the traditional Chinese medicine, it can be used to treat insufficient lactation. Mothers who have had Toxemia or preeclampsia during pregnancy may find their milk slow to come in. The swelling from toxemia can take¹ weeks to resolve. However, by ingesting her placenta the symptoms will be more quickly alleviated and her milk more likely to flow normally by the third day postpartum. ¹

The effect of the ingested placenta (placenta pills) by the mothers on the rate of growth of breastfed infants is apparent - this means that the breastfed babies that their mothers took the placenta pills increased in the normal weight gain on the 13th day by over 60%.³