How to Make a Placenta Print

When your placenta has finished the work of nourishing and protecting a baby, this multi-talented organ can also make some lovely art! Placenta prints make a wonderful keepsake for the baby book, or you can frame it and have fun watching your friends wonder just how that pretty tree-like art was made. This is a really nice project to do with a friend/doula/midwife in the first couple of days after birth, and is a natural opportunity to reflect on your birth experience. Try not to wait more than about three days, though -- print quality will suffer as the placenta starts to deteriorate.

What you'll need:

• Any decent acid-free art paper will do. Watercolor paper can be especially nice.
• Ink -- acid-free stamp pads are perfect for this kind of project. Buy several colors; some will "take" or look better than others. Green and purple are my personal favorites.
• A fresh placenta, obviously. Ask your midwife to wrap it up and put it in the fridge after the birth.
• Latex gloves (optional). Otherwise, towels to wipe those messy hands!

Step One: Lay the placenta out on a flat surface (cord-side up) and cover it with ink:


Step Two: Press your paper down on top of the inky placenta:


Step Three: Carefully pull up your paper and admire your pretty work!


Tips & Tricks for placenta print success:

• For your first print, try using the blood that's already on the placenta (below, left).
• If your paper is big enough, you don't have to limit yourself to just one print per page. In fact, you can do one print from the maternal side, and one from the fetal side.
• And if you're artsy, consider putting down a background color first, as seen below, right.
• Expect to make at least a dozen prints to get one that you love.