When Mina Bregman was having her third child, she had already decided she was going to eat the placenta after childbirth. It would not be the first time she had eaten her own afterbirth. Following her second pregnancy, the midwife dehydrated Bregman's placenta, processed it at a low temperature and ground it into powder form for consumption. But this time, it would be a little different.
The placenta is an organ that develops in the womb during pregnancy to deliver nutrients to the fetus. Believed by some to provide health benefits, the practice of placentophagy, or ingesting afterbirth, is well outside of the mainstream but has become a trend worldwide in recent years.
In March, actress January Jones told People magazine that she ate her own placenta in the form of capsules after becoming a first-time mum, adding that the practice is 'not witchcrafty'.
Those with a more conventional outlook may find the idea difficult to stomach.
'Every time I give birth, my family always wonders what crazy things I'm going to do to shock them,' says Bregman. At the time, she was living in the Netherlands where home births assisted by midwives are fairly common.
After a smooth delivery, Bregman's doula, Rachel Hopkins, placed the placenta into a pan and brought it to the kitchen where a scalpel, a cutting board sterilised in an autoclave and plastic bags had been set aside for the postnatal preparation.
Hopkins assessed the health of the placenta by checking the colour, texture and size. She examined the flow of the tree-like veins and checked for evidence of clots or infections. Satisfied, she carefully cleaned the organ and divided it into ten pieces, reserving one portion for the day's use and storing the rest in the kitchen freezer.