Christina Anstead Is the Latest Celebrity Mom to Try This Controversial Postpartum Practice

Julie Sprankles

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Depending on your personal preference, one Hollywood mom’s new postpartum behavior might make your stomach flip and flop. HGTV’s Christina Anstead just revealed she is eating her placenta following son Hudson’s birth a week ago, meaning she’s joined the ranks of fellow placenta-consuming celebs like Kim Kardashian and Chrissy Teigen. Considering the placenta is literally made out of maternal tissue, this trend kinda gives new meaning to the idiom “you are what you eat.”

The Christina on the Coast star and her husband Ant Anstead announced last week that the new addition to their blended family had come into the world on Friday, Sept. 6. They named the little boy Hudson London, and both proud parents have since shared glimpses into life with a newborn. The family’s household also includes Christina’s kids Taylor Reese, 9, and Brayden James, 4 (with ex-husband Tarek El Moussa), as well as Ant’s kids Amelia, 16, and Archie, 13 (from his previous marriage).

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So, it would be understandable if new-again mom Christina was in need of a little boost, which may be part of the reason she decided to pop some placenta pills. “First time I’ve tried it — and I think these placenta encapsulation [pills] are working,” she wrote on a photo of a pink pill container in her Instagram Stories. Adorably, little Hudson can just barely be seen napping in the background.

Curious what she meant when she said the pills might be “working”? According to the website for Mommy Made Encapsulation, where Christina had her pills made, they believe placentophagy (the technical term for consuming the placenta) is beneficial. Per the company, the perceived benefits of placenta consumption include higher levels of energy, lesser chance of baby blues and postpartum depression, balanced mood and hormones, increased milk supply and overall faster recovery.

Although the practice has been touted by several celebrities, it isn’t without criticism. For starters, there is a definitive lack of published medical evidence that eating your placenta offers health benefits. And a recent study in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology specifically advises doctors not to recommend that patients eat their own or anyone else’s placenta. Finally, according to the Mayo Clinic, eating the placenta “can pose harm to both you and your baby.”

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