Rankin woman sues for rights to placenta

Almost immediately after she found out she was pregnant, Brandon resident Jordan Thiering began preparing for her baby. She bought outfits and stocked up on cloth diapers.

She and husband Doug assembled baby furniture and decorated the nursery with the name they had chosen for their son; they would call him Roman, middle name to be determined. They packed a bag, ready for that moment they had to rush off to the hospital. In a multitude of ways, Thiering was prepared for her baby’s arrival.

One thing she was not prepared for, however, was to go to court.

At 33 weeks pregnant, Thiering had to get a court order giving her the rights to her placenta.

“I grew my baby, I grew my placenta,” Thiering said. “There should be no one that can tell me what I can or can’t do with it.”

Thiering said she was going over her birth plan with her OB-GYN in March when she mentioned she wanted to encapsulate her placenta.

After a postpartum friend told Thiering she put her placenta in a smoothie, the mom-to-be began to look into the idea.

Placentophagy, or the act of eating one's own placenta, has increased in Western culture. Proponents claim it can increase your energy level and milk production and help ward off postpartum depression. However, the benefits have not been scientifically proven.

After conducting her own research, Thiering decided to encapsulate her placenta.

"Taking a multivitamin is something that I do regularly anyway so putting it in a gelatin capsule just seems so simple and if it’s going to benefit me and my husband, my baby, I might as well," she said. "The benefits just seem to outweigh any sort of negative. I’m really excited about it. If it does nothing, it does nothing, but it's the whole perspective of being able to kind of have what I want, rightfully so. "

Planning to  deliver at River Oaks Hospital, Thiering's doctor said she might want to check with the hospital on its rules and regulations beforehand.

When she called the hospital, Thiering was told she would need a court order.

“I’m thinking, ‘What? For my own body part? Why do I need a court order?’”

Thiering was told it was an issue with the Mississippi Department of Health and she was considered a "third party" to her placenta.

"If I give birth to my baby and then I give birth to my placenta, do you own my baby, too? Do I have a third party to my own child? Well, of course not. So then why am I the third party to my own body part? It just doesn’t seem to make sense," she said.

According to a memo obtained by The Clarion-Ledger, state epidemiologist Dr. Thomas Dobbs defined the placenta as “medical waste.”

The memo states, in part, “no hospital or other facility may release non-infectious medical waste (including placental tissue) without there first having been obtained by a court order, or other judicial mandate, which will assure proper disposal by the release.”

Which contacted for comment, MSDH spokesperson Liz Sharlot said, "We are not a pivotal party in the lawsuit."

Confused and frustrated, Thiering turned to a Facebook group for moms asking for advice. She posted what she had been told and was contacted by attorney Jacqueline Hammack.

Thiering nor Hammack, who specializes in women's health issues, said they had ever heard of a woman having to obtain a court order to get her placenta.

"I told her I would love to help her out, that this was a crazy thing she was experiencing," Hammack said. "Placenta release was a new endeavor for me but I read the law, talked to her, got all the pertinent facts and I made a petition that I hoped would be sufficient and it was."

Thiering petitioned the Rankin County Chancery County on May 2, asking for the rights to her placenta. Judge John McLaurin granted the order on May 17.

“It was pretty simple but totally unnecessary in my opinion to need any of that,” she said. “I don’t think it’s right for someone who has no experience to dictate what a woman can do with her body…he’s not a woman. He shouldn’t have a right to dictate what I can do with my body.

"It’s your body part and no matter what women want to do with it, it’s their right to have it."

Thiering said she recognizes that other women may not want to encapsulate or consume their placenta but for her, the health benefits made it an easy choice.

She added that education is key in the entire birth process, not just regarding the placenta.

"It's my choice and I think that all women really need be educated, knowing that their birth is their choice," she said. "Obviously, emergencies happen but you don't have to do everything by the book, the way that people kind of assume is the normal way. There is no normal way ... I think this placenta thing is one of those things. It's something that you can do to help your body and help your baby and I think it's just really important in general to let women know you have options."

Hammack said she hopes the court order "paves the way" for other women.

"It's not just about getting (Thiering's) court order but making it easier for other women," she said. "I think if the Department of Health is amenable to changing it's policy, I think we could change the way hospitals treat the issue."

Contact Sarah Fowler at sfowler@gannett.com or 601-961-7303. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.