The behaviour is characteristic to majority of placental mammals. Exception being humans, camels and aquatic mammals amongst others.
Although, in recent times maternal placentophagy has a small following in Western cultures, fostered by celebrities like January Jones and Kim Kyle.
There has been various speculations on the benefits of placentophagy to the mother. Examples of which include nutrition, relieving postpartum pain, and keeping the scent of newborn away from predators. However there hasn't been substantial evidence to proof these as facts.
However, I had a discussion with my mum recently and she has a quite different and interesting take on the topic.
My mum has being rearing goats for close to 15years and she says the "myth" surrounding placentophagy especially in goats, is that it'll give birth to the same sex it did at that birth.
And she has attested to it that whenever her goats eats its placenta it indeed gives birth to the same sex.
Quite interesting, isn't it?. I doubted it at first because it didn't sound logical to me and neither did it have scientific backing.
But with recent occurrences I'm beginning to give it second thoughts.
We know that sex of a baby is determined by the sperm's contribution of either X- or Y-chromosome and the eggs X-chromosome. XY for males and XX for females, basically.
Although the placenta also originates from the same pool of cells as the baby, so both baby and placenta have a biological sex. Male placentas, just like male babies, have a Y chromosome.
And even during pregnancies, male and female babies develop differently, and their placentas exhibit sex-specific structure and function.
Yet, the connection between the placenta of one offspring and the sex of a later birth isn't clear.
Recently however, my mum's goat gave birth and as she predicted it was the same sex as at its first birth. At its first birth, my mom wasn't around to prevent it from eating its placenta and therefore she concluded it would be the same sex on its next birth. And here we are.
Could it just be a coincidence or is there really a connection between placentophagy and the sex of the next offspring birth??.
I hope to study the connection more in the near future.
Please Do leave your thoughts on this topic in the comments.
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