Why eat a placenta?

[JPace]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4918290.stm
Last Updated: Tuesday, 18 April 2006, 12:52 GMT 13:52 UK

Why eat a placenta?
WHO, WHAT, WHY?
The Magazine answers...

Tom Cruise made the front pages by joking that he was going to eat the placenta when his fiancee gave birth. Are there really any medical benefits to eating a placenta?
Into the roasting pan, put one onion, red pepper, tomato sauce, bay leaves, pepper, salt and a clove of garlic... and 1 to 3lbs of placenta.

Is this recipe for cooking a placenta a wholesome idea, feeding the new mother in the way nature intended? Or is it something that seems very unnatural and more likely to inspire queasiness than post-birth nourishment?

The issue of eating the placenta - the afterbirth delivered from a mother following the birth of a baby - has been sparked again by front-page reports that Hollywood star Tom Cruise had been planning to eat the placenta when his fiancee gave birth.

Although in an interview with a US television news network, Cruise denied such a suggestion.

Young wives' tale

But there has been a longstanding belief among some new mothers that eating the placenta can yield benefits.
more..............http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4918290.stm