MY HUSBAND ASKS what I plan to do with my placenta.
It is spring, and we have been unexpectedly gifted some elk meat. He removes all the contents of our freezer to make room for portions of another animal’s body. Parts of its shoulder, its haunches, and pieces of its belly line our counter, wrapped and packed into neat blocks of meat.
My placenta has been in the freezer for months, and now it is sitting on the counter, too, frozen like a steak in a biohazard bucket. I insisted this part of my body come home with us to Wyoming after I gave birth, and now I can’t decide what to do with it.
The word “placenta” is derived from the Latin word for
