When Adelaide was born we kept her placenta in Tupperware in the freezer, with the intention of burying it under a tree when Spring came. Well today was the first sunny day we have had all year, and so it was time to bury the "twin". I looked online and found different rituals and things that people do around the world with the placenta. We took it out of the freezer last night to thaw, and Myles got two kiwi vines to bury it under. They are some special kind of kiwi that will grow good here, and you can pick the fruit off the vine and eat the entire thing. That sounds good right? Placenta flavored kiwi =/ The first thing that we did was cut the umbilical cord from the placenta. It was still attached, and represents the cord that held Adealaide and I together for her 9 months in the womb. It's also the way in which she was nurtured. So we took the cord and made it into a heart shape. (Myles made the heart, he is really good at making hearts!) Then we dried it and it now is hard and dry, and stuck in a heart shape. We might frame it to put on the wall, or just keep it somewhere safe. It's really beautiful looking, and I'm really glad that it wasn't just thrown away or buried with the rest of the placenta.
The next thing we did (and thank you Natalie and Shauna for this idea!) was make "placenta prints". I figured that after being frozen, there wouldn't be much blood on the placenta, so I didn't think it would work. I was wrong. So I got out the drawing paper, and Myles and I took turns making prints with the placenta! I know, we are weird and YES it was kind of gross. The placenta smelled and was really weird to touch, and quite heavy actually. There was a lot of blood, so it made quite a mess, but I think the prints turned out pretty interesting. They are all very different. Myles did one with the "sack" that Adelaide was in spread out as well. I don't know what we will do with these, but they are really beautiful in their own way. Here is our artwork drying on the porch.
Once we were done making our keepsakes of the placenta, Myles put it in the ground, back to the earth where we will all return someday. It is done nurturing Adelaide my sweet baby, and now it will nurture her kiwi plant! Here is a picture or Myles burying it.
And lastly the video. Myles actually dug it up and buried it a lot deeper after this, to be sure the raccoons couldn't smell it and dig it up or something! I'm sure Adelaide will find all of this completely disgusting when she gets older, but it's just one more thing we did to cherish her. Hey....at least we didn't eat it...some people do that too!
2 comments:
A blog posting has not entertained me as much as this one did in a long time. Very Cool!
I ended up throwing away my print one day because Amelia was complaining that she could smell it. I didn't smell anything but decided to stop grossing out my family members :)
My placenta is still in the freezer for when we buy a home some day, so it is good to know we could still get some prints out of it and maybe even a heart shaped umbilical cord. I totally vote for you framing it so that you can embarrass her one day. How will she ever be able to be mad at you? She has parents that make shapes out of her afterbirth to decorate her house :)
I don't think it's weird to treat placenta this way and I'm happy that you had the chance to celebrate Adelaide's birth this way too. I didn't even see my placenta. When Gaia was born they didn't ask us at the hospital if we wanted to keep it. They just took it straight after it was out. It was so quick that I don't even remember when it happened.
It's wonderful, that you planted a tree on your placenta.
And the heart is beautiful... I still keep Gaia's umbilical cord that fell off of her belly button.
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