Dear DeShaun

By Preggers Can Be Choosers

Dear DeShaun,

I can’t begin to imagine. I don’t know, will never know in this lifetime.

The only way out of this is power in the hands of the people, with equanimity and equitability and removing the barriers that keep people fenced into poverty and fenced out of safety and opportunity.

 

Shared power IMO is the way through, and that’s not going to happen without strife (to put it mildly).

 

That’s a wordy way to say that I believe in you. I believe in the YOU who are points of power and points of light and points or strength in local communities. That to me is what healing looks like.

 

I believe in you.

 

I believe in You, DeShaun, and I believe in the other folks who have drive and compass and leadership in their community.*

 

I know I tell you that frequently, so I’m hoping that me repeating that doesn’t lessen the message.

I hope it’s not to heavy a message, not too much on your shoulders. Each community needs its point people, and you for sure are one.

I believe in you.

 

Every time I see some shit where a person of color, POC, BIPOC, someone not white, gets killed, harassed, or raped because of racism, I take a breath, honor the transitioned, and fuel my white-hot mother fucking rage into something useful. I feel like this lady here gets me:

Something useful looks like arms outstretched, helping to pull you over the finish line of becoming a licensed midwife. It may seem like a million years from now you will get that goal, but that’s not true. Three years can pass and you will be a midwife, or three years can pass and you won’t be. Either way, the years will pass.

I believe that you and your community deserve care without bias, and SAFE care, and on par with what people who aren’t deemed “other” receive.

I’m down for helping you get ALL THE KNOWLEDGE so peeps can stay in community and low risk if they want a community birth, and if they want a hospital birth then glorious prenatal care can be a contributing factor to an optimal hospital birth.

Beyond tenacity, it will take money in your pocket so you can stay financially afloat while getting the education.

I’ve brainstormed a few ways for you to make the centavos while going through the midwifery education process.

Money Maker List for DeShaun

Anyway. here are the placenta details.

I first started because my best friend of 20 years is Pat Greer, a raw food chef https://patgreerskitchen.com/, and I already had a nine tray Excalibur, a Vitamix with a dry blade that I never used, gloves, and an encapsulator because I’d been encapsulating herbs, etc for usage many many years. So basically I had all the basic supplies and was familiar with raw food theory so a fellow doula https://laborenabler.com/ told me her process, and I ran it by Pat to tweak the process, then I took it from there.

Placenta Encapsulation:

Classes to attend for placenta safety are here, and there are parameters for when encapsulation is not a good idea. I think taking a class is a good idea because of this, for sure. Here is the one I recommend IPPA   https://www.ippatraining.com/ and it’s on sale right now it is $350.   https://www.ippatraining.com/distance

Another good one is APPA https://placentaassociation.com/ and it is around 5 bills. https://placentaassociation.com/product/training-program/

Also, look at the placentavore hoodie!!! See what I mean on this!! Placentavore Hoodie

TBH though I had been encapsulating for about 8 years before I took a class.

Thoughts on dosage: 

Every postpartum body responds differently, and I think that the recommended dose ( the one thrown around in community) is way too high, I’m thinking more along the lines of two pills in the morning with food, and once mid-afternoon or PRN if you are losing your shit, this is a better dosage pattern. My herbal grandmother always said, watch your body, see what it does, how it responds, and fine-tune the dosage with that information.

Here are the supplies you need to encapsulate a placenta:

  • Scrub brush just for clean up ~ you can reuse a surgical scrub brush

  • A colander steamer jobbie ~ Some folks will want steaming, and this works well to cut the placenta into pieces soak on some cold water, and then dump the water, rinse some more. You are done when the water runs clear.

  •  Make some labels at moo (cheap ones are cheap from Vistaprint)

  • Size 00 capsules. here’s the deal, the vegan no gelatin ones fall apart, and won’t last if someone wants to keep them in their freezer for later, or whatever. They degrade easily, they overall suck. The gelatin ones aren’t great for vegans, or for Jewish folks who observe Parve, not sure about other cultures like Muslims. So stocking gelatin ones and non-gelatin ones is a good idea. More of the gelatin ones than not. And some folks encapsulate into strawberry-flavored red gelatin capsules. I could get seduced into doing that, but the cost is higher and maybe a fake strawberry taste covering a placenta taste isn’t a good idea, but you can decide on that! 00 Capsules   https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/products/empty-capsules/profile

  • Some paper for making a print ~ https://youtu.be/xnQAnvYGbm0 (but wear gloves) and i like using the blood, not adding paint to the placenta. you can always jazz it up after, with some watercolors or watercolor pencils after the print has dried.

  • Box of gloves ~ not latex

  • Some sort of chux pad or liner to throw down when you do this on your counter, or a thick table cloth you can put into the washing machine and then wipe down counters with diluted Hibicide.

If you are doing this as a value-added service as a doula at a home birth, this is my process.

  1. Convince them that they need a smoothie, and that you will make it delicious. They need to have yogurt, frozen berries ESP strawberries, and ice, maybe some protein powder or bee pollen, coconut water or juice as a base. Whatever works in their diet preferences. They need to have a big ass bag of berries, and a box of snack bags
  2. Prep the placenta – clean the surface and area around their kitchen where you will be working, make sure the sink is clean and your equipment is good to go, get out their blender
  • clean the surface and area around their kitchen where you will be working, make sure the sink is clean and your equipment is good to go, get out their blender
  • Spread out chux, and scrape large clots off the placenta and to the side.
  • Look over the maternal (Duncan) side, is it shreddy, calcified, looking rough?
  • Look at the Shulz side, is it lobed? Check out umbilical cord, how is it inserted? in the middle or marginal or velamentous or what? Inspect for three vessels then trim, some folks want to save that if you are going to dehydrate that, so put in a small snack (lol) size ziplock bag by itself.
  • Amniotic sack, do they approximate, are all the layers there?
  • Now cut it up with scissors into small pieces, and sling into colander. If they let the cord stop pulsing and did a delayed cord clamp, there will not be that much blood to drain out. If the cord clamp was quick, then there will be so much blood. I really became a believer in getting all those stem cells back into the baby when I started processing placentas, all that blood that could be in the baby instead of going down the drain, amazing.
  • Let it drain some, and while you are waiting make a smoothie. You really want a high powered blender, so if they don’t have one bring a Vitamix or something. If they want you to get them ready for daily smoothies, they must get a blender that doesn’t suck.
  • In each snack bag, but 5 strawberries and one or two pieces of placenta in there, perhaps some frozen banana chips or blueberries also. The idea is that the smoothie prepper can get all the cool or room temp items together and blend, then add the bag of frozen ingredients and blend and then pour into a cup. and not some huge amount, one 8 oz glass is fine because we don’t want it getting forgetting about before it gets finished.
  • That first smoothie you make while you are at their house postpartum can be a little bigger cause you are there pushing it. And no people standing around making a face, because it ruins the vibe and also the postpartum person isn’t as likely to finish it. Use THE LOOK, you know the one, to get that person to STFU.
  • The pieces that aren’t going into raw prep for smoothies, either start dehydrating at their house, which isn’t a bad idea BUT during the current pandemic restrictions maybe it isn’t so great.
  • Alternately, refrigerate, and then take to your house, set up a clean space, use two of the (bottom and middle) Excalibur shelves so that there is air circulation space, and put the precut papers down and then start in dehydrator @125 degrees for 12 hours, then look at them, cut into smaller pieces for surface area, and then turn down to 105 degrees for 24-36 hours.

If you are doing it later at your dedicated placenta space, this is the process when you are at home or whatever.

  1. Look it over, take pictures to do education with family (Covid might increase clots or decrease how well placentas implant, so let’s be on the lookout for that.)
  2. Do the Print
  3. Cut up, put in colander/ strainer, let it sit in cold water, swap water out a few times.
  4. Let drain and drip dry, then place onto papers already loaded onto trays. Totally ok if it’s still a little wet.
  5. Place a kitchen towel on top of dehydrator, scrub up with disinfectant cleaner, and a dedicated scrub brush all the items you used, then rinse well. place all things to dry on top of dehydrator, it keeps every compartmentalized and drys it super fast. I don’t have a dishwasher (old house) but if I did everything goes through a cleaning but by itself, no other dishes.
  6. 125 degrees for 12 hours, cut into smaller pieces with your meat scissors then turn down to 105 degrees for 24 plus hours. It’s done when you cut through them and you cant cause its a dry crusty crouton.
  7. Grind in grinder, then encapsulate. Some people add herbs, I don’t. Mostly because my herbalist grandmother died before I could ask her opinion, and two I myself m not a master herbalist. so there ya go.
  8. Label, jar, keep in fridge, when they stop taking them move to freezer, can be added to salve for butt cream, eczema or whatever.

That’s about it, store all your equipment together, dedicated to this one purpose.

I’m billing $250, with $25 pickup travel fee. Some folks add a tincture, a print, and a salve for $300.

I have an encapsulator, some Excalibur papers, and a whole bunch of love to you. So let’s get together.

Oh, and I’m starting the documentation to be a preceptor through SouthWest Tech, so that’s in motion. CAUSE YOU DID IT!!!!

All the love. Even in the future, even when we may not like each other very much cause we are tired and been up too long and over everything, even when we aren’t sure if we are a fit anymore, even when we can’t see our way to common ground, I will always do my best to be a good teacher, the grittiest of allies, and someone you are proud to call friend.

You and the community you will one day serve as a midwife matter to me.

Love you honey.

#blacklivesmatter #hopepunk #eachoneteachone #midewife

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