Mums know how important placenta is during pregnancy. This vital and frankly miraculous organ protects your baby from infection and feeds them with vital nutrients right up to birth. It’s no wonder some mums grow sentimental attachment to their after-birth!
 
You can then imagine the horror of this New Zealand mum, who has pleaded with burglars to return her placenta after thieves raided her home.
 
Loralie Burns recently moved house in Auckland, however the freezer remained in her old house. In it, she kept her five-month-old son Dante's placenta in a Tupperware container.
 
She got a call on Saturday from her landlord with some unsettling news - thieves had ransacked the place. Cupboard doors were left open, and old meat due to be thrown out was stolen - along with Dante’s placenta.
 
Burns took to Facebook with her plea.
 
 
“URGENT, Please whoever went through my old house/next door and felt the need to take the meat from the freezer...PLEASE return the item in the blue tupperware container as it is my son's placenta.”
 
 
 
 
 
 

The Auckland woman said she wanted the placenta’s safe return ASAP with no questions asked: “I don’t care how it comes back, I don’t need need to know who...just please get it back to me asap!!.”
 
“My mind’s still blown,” she told New Zealand news site Stuff.
 
"I hope to God I get it back, and I hope no one eats it — that would torment me for a long time," Burns told the publication. She said the placenta had 'huge' sentimental value and that her family had planned to bury it somewhere special.
 
 
Many mums are fond of keeping their placenta after the birth of their child. The ritual of burying placenta is hardly new.
 
 
 
 
 
Some cultures bury the placenta for various reasons.
 
The Māori of New Zealand traditionally bury the placenta from a newborn child to emphasise the relationship between humans and the earth. Native American Navajos bury the placenta and umbilical cord at a specially chosen site, particularly if the baby dies during birth. Cambodians believe that burying the placenta will protect and ensure the health of the baby and the mother. 
 
The custom of consuming the placenta, often done as placental encapsulation, or pill form, is centuries old, practised most often in Chinese medicine. It is a controversial tradition, but it's been gaining popularity in the West for several decades.  You can also make it into a smoothie!

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