'It's quite strange handling my own' Mum defrosts her placenta at home and turns it into pills

A mum-of-two has posted pictures of her placenta defrosting on her kitchen counter as she attempts to create DIY placenta pills.

Elise Apps from Australia is a certified placenta encapsulator and after making her own placenta into pills, she plans to offer her services to friends and family for free.

The 26-year-old mum posted a selfie with her placenta, which could be seen sitting on a wooden chopping board in her kitchen next to a large knife as it defrosts.

The mum explained the first step in her caption, writing, 'Yep, this is exactly what it looks like 🙊 first step is to rinse away the blood.... To be continued...'

Explaining more about what it takes to create placenta pills in a previous post, Elise wrote, 'This is what I did with my morning. Finally defrosted my placenta and steamed it.'

Continuing to detail the emotional connection she feels to her placenta, the Queensland native said, 'it was really quite strange handling my own placenta, something I'd grown in my body and had nourished my baby girl for nine months.

'Up close the vein structure is actually quite incredible and feeling and examining every part taught me more then I could have read and researched.

'So I'm in the dehydrating stage now of my first placenta. Im going to ground it up into powder form to get the hang of all my equipment and I'll encapsulate a couple for practice but the remainder of the powder will be buried in our yard under a tree 🌴 stay tuned for more photos 😁'

Elise's graphic photos of her placenta and detailed descriptions of how she plans to encapsulate it have gained lots of attention from other mums, with some wanting to try the practise themselves and others disagreeing completely.

One Instagram user shared Elise's view, writing, 'had mine encapsulated and I am loving the benefits! Good for you! I didn't do my own but nice work on doing your own :)'

Another, however, was unsure whether it would be for them, writing, 'I was thinking about it but still wasn't sure whether I could stomach it or not.'

The mother of two spoke to the Daily Mail about the reactions she can get from other people, 'I get a lot of raised eyebrows and it's more because people don't know the benefits and wonder why you would want to eat it.

'I find it's best not to elaborate too much to people who don't ask any questions, those people have already made up their mind that it's not for them and that's fine.'

It's thought that the placenta can give new mums a helping hand in recovering after birth because of the goodness it holds after transferring nutrients from a mother to her baby for nine months.

Although it's not scientifically proven, research suggests that some new mums experience a boost in breast milk production, and that eating the placenta either raw or in pill form may even help to balance hormone levels and combat postnatal depression.