How Norfolk mums can eat their powdered placenta as pills

But for one Norfolk woman, it is a serious business. For Nikki Welling takes the placentas of new Norfolk mums and turns them into powder in hundreds of tablets - which are then taken like vitamin supplements by the women.

It is her job - and it was inspired by her drinking a placenta, berry and banana smoothie after the birth of her second child.

Mrs Welling owns Cherished Placentas in Great Hockham, near Thetford, which operates out of a placenta unit in a converted barn in her back garden.

Mrs Welling's business offers a unique service to new Norfolk mums.

Placenta remedies made by Nikki Welling, placenta encapsulation specialist in her business Cherished Placentas, for new mothers using their own encapsulated placenta, which she claims can give massive health boosts post birth. Picture: DENISE BRADLEY (Image: Copyright: Archant 2018)

After booking in their due date, customers receive an ice-chilled storage box ahead of their due date and once the baby has arrived, the placenta is transported to Mrs Welling, checked for any issues, dehydrated for 12-18 hours, checked again, then ground into a fine powder.

The powder is put into capsules, delivered to the customer within two days, which are recommended to be taken like a vitamin supplement three times a day - with a placenta generating 90-300 capsules.

A new mum's own dehydrated and painted umbilical cord, one of the products made by Nikki Welling, placenta encapsulation specialist, in her business Cherished Placentas. Picture: DENISE BRADLEY (Image: Copyright: Archant 2018)

The business launched in April 2018, and Mrs Welling said: 'Having placenta encapsulation just felt right to me. I had a raw piece of placenta blended into a smoothie and it really did taste like a smoothie.

'Mums who have tried it have felt completely different from their first child if they had had a baby already. They say they have much more energy, manage to breast feed and have more milk production.'

Placenta infused cosmetic products made by Nikki Welling, placenta encapsulation specialist in her business Cherished Placentas, for new mothers using their own encapsulated placenta. Picture: DENISE BRADLEY (Image: Copyright: Archant 2018)

She added: 'I have experienced it and have felt all the benefits that have been know to help. It also reportedly reduces depression and the baby blues. Some mums can have quite severe haemorrhaging and placenta can activate a hormone to stop the bleeding.'

On average, Mrs Welling deals with 15-20 placentas each month, and also offers placenta oil, a tincture (a lifelong product where a placenta is steeped for six weeks and then acts to help block certain hormones), and a placenta keepsake where it is dehydrated, mounted, and can spell love, a name, or form a love heart.

A few of the capsules made by Nikki Welling, placenta encapsulation specialist in her business Cherished Placentas, for new mothers containing their own finely ground encapsulated placenta, which she claims can give massive health boosts post birth. Picture: DENISE BRADLEY (Image: Copyright: Archant 2018)

She said: 'This is such an amazing thing that is produced by our bodies and to change that opinion of it being gross is brilliant and definitely for the future.'