Honouring the Placenta

Artwork by Robyn Kahukiwa
Australian / Aotearoa New Zealand (Ngāti Porou, Te Aitanga-a-Huiti, Te Whānau-a-Ruataupare), b.1940

Birthing Our Placenta

For Bodhi's arrival, I wanted a lotus birth—where the baby and placenta are born still intact. So that is what we did. To me, it seemed the most gentle way to land in the physical world. Cord cutting is its own ritual, and there are many ways to do it.

A full lotus birth waits until the cord naturally dries and separates on its own. This can take around 5-7 days. If you choose this path, you can use herbs and salts to cure your placenta and support the process. I didn't feel drawn to that for us. Instead, I felt called to the significance of cutting the cord—the first tie we break.

We waited a day before cutting Bodhi's cord. By then, it had already dried up significantly. We used a beautiful pounamu pito cutter from Taiao (you can find them here). We said a karakia, cut the cord, and tied a little harakeke tie (muku pito tie) on Bodhi’s end. Harakeke is anti-bacterial and anti-fungal, and while Bodhi probably didn’t need it (as his cord was already dried), it felt special to bring some ritual to his end that was still deeply connected.
There is also the beautiful option of candle burning for the cord—this severs the cord and means you don’t need a tie at all. I’m feeling my next pēpi is calling for this.

The Long Wait to Return Our Whenua

After two and a half years, I finally gave Bodhi and I’s whenua back to Papatūānuku. 🩸🌿
I had been holding onto planting it in the perfect place… and so I kept waiting. Waiting for the right time. Waiting for it to be just right.

But the more I tuned into our placenta—that had been resting in the freezer all this time—I couldn’t silence its loud request to be put back into the earth any longer.
I wrote our placenta a song. And on the day I finally got it out of the freezer, I cried and said sorry for leaving it in there so long.

Returning to Papa

We went on an overnight hike, slept under the stars, and watched the sunrise. In the soft morning light, we found a beautiful spot nestled under a ponga, pōhutukawa, kawakawa, and nīkau. My husband dug a hole, and Bodhi and I made a placenta print on several pages of my journal. I sung my song (which I wished I’d practiced more, haha), and we gave our whenua back to Papa.

It was beautiful, and it felt so right. This was a moment to honour and give deep gratitude to this miraculous organ I grew—Bodhi’s womb mate. It nourished and sustained him in the womb, and it only felt right to give it back to the earth, where it belongs. ♥️
And in the end, it was perfect—exactly as it was meant to be.

When the Time Feels Right

It’s so interesting that we live in a time where we can keep a placenta in the freezer and wait until we feel ready to plant it. And at the same time, I don’t believe there’s a right or wrong way to honour our placenta—only what feels right for each of us.
I do feel, though, that our placentas are grateful to be given back to the earth, or in some cultures they are given back to the fire to transform.

Last year, I did a mentorship with @aimeearoha and learned then that it is noa (unsacred) to put a placenta in the freezer.
A beautiful alternative—if you’re not sure where you want to plant it right away—is to place it in an outdoor pot plant. Then, one day, when the time feels right, you can plant the plant and your placenta back to Mama Earth together… and you never would have needed to freeze it at all.

Next time, my placenta will be going straight to Papa. No freezer again.

If Your Placenta Is Still in the Freezer…

And if you’re reading this thinking, "Mine’s still in the freezer too," I’d gently recommend: when you feel the call, let it defrost. Hold it again. Connect with it, and give it back to the earth with reverence and grace.

Ways to Honour Your Placenta

If you’re curious about ways to honour your placenta after birth, there are so many sacred practices you can explore. There’s an amazing book by Robin Lim called Placenta: The Forgotten Chakra—I highly recommend it! 🩸

Thoughts on Consuming the Placenta

I did ponder about consuming my placenta.
The reason I didn’t was because, with the information I had at the time, it didn’t seem possible to have a lotus birth and get my placenta encapsulated. The placenta would need to be frozen within a time frame that wouldn’t have worked with our lotus birth plans.

Now, with more knowledge, I realise I could have done it. You can make your own tinctures or consume it in smoothies, even with a lotus birth. But I also learned, through Te Ao Māori, that the placenta was traditionally not consumed—it needed to go back to the earth. And that now really lands for me. The return to Papatūānuku feels complete.

However, another piece of wisdom from Robin Lim’s book has stayed with me: if a woman experiences a serious postpartum haemorrhage, eating some of the placenta can stop the bleeding or significantly reduce it.
Because of this, on my husband’s list of things to hold and remember, was that if I were to bleed heavily—regardless of what any other professional might say—he was to cut off a piece of the placenta, douse it in honey, and ask me to eat it.
We didn’t need to do that however. I’ve also since discovered that it is very rare that a women would haemorrhage in an undisturbed, physiological birth.

I’d love to connect if you have any questions or wisdom to share. We’re all learning and remembering together.

With love,

Tish ♥️