Taking this in a different direction than most would.
Who does the placenta belong to; the mother or the baby?
The placenta is the transition point between the body of the mother and the child. One side of this membrane is the supply of nutrients and oxygen the other is the pickup point for these supplies for the child.
So in my mind it is in reality the placenta is the property of both the mother and the child.
But of course the mother is the only one of the two capable of ingesting the placenta at the time of birth.
Now all we need are some good recipes for placenta.
You might be able to use a good haggis recipe.
The Placenta is completely made up of cells from the Baby, so eating the Placenta is basically “Eating the baby’s nutrient absorption apendage” It is formed from the fetus and attaches to the uterine wall to act as a barrier between mother and child preventing certain things from transferring, but allowing things like oxygen, vitamins, minerals and nutrients to pass through.
It is basically a selective membrane with a very large surface area to allow this and fetal blood pumps through it.
So eating a Placenta is basically eating a part of your own Baby!!! However it is a part of the baby that the baby no longer needs after it is born so besides the ick factor, it is exactly like eating human flesh....
Just because animals do it, doesn’t mean humans should, we can eat enough vitamins and minerals to make up for the so called “nutrient loss” caused by it.
I would say eating the afterbirth could potentially lead to Kuru disease, ick....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuru_(disease)
Or imagine this, what if the baby had a genetic defect that lead to malformed protein / prion disease, you eat the placenta and BAM, Mother has Prion disease along with the baby....