Holly Madison Baby Placenta To Be Made into Edible Pills: Pregnant Star to Follow Growing Celeb Trend?

Holly Madison, the former Girl Next Door, will incorporate something new into her post-birth diet...her baby's placenta!

Hugh Hefner's ex recently announced her plans to have her baby's placenta turned into pills and ingest them after the birth of her baby girl next month, reports Us Weekly. She revealed this news via a blog on Celebuzz:

"This might sound gross, but I'm totally planning on having my placenta turned into pills I can take after giving birth. I heard it helps women recover faster and I want to recover as quickly as I can!" writes Madison.

Ingesting a placenta may still sound bizarre, even if it is in pill form, but it supposedly helps balance hormones and thereby combats postpartum depression as well, according to The Examiner.

According to the Huffington Post, "The woman's placenta is cleaned, cooked, dried and made into ingestible capsules. Some women choose to eat it raw, cooked or blended into smoothies. In a blog for HuffPost Science, behavioral neuroscientist Mark Kristal said women think eating the placenta can help or reduce "postpartum depression, 'baby blues,' fatigue, lactational insufficiency and hormone deficiencies."

The former Playboy model is not the first celebrity to jump on the placenta pill trend, notes The Examiner. "Mad Men" actress January Jones has admitted to eating her placenta after the birth of her son, Xander, in 2011.

"Your placenta gets dehydrated and made into vitamins," she told People magazine. "It's something I was very hesitant about, but we're the only mammals who don't ingest our own placentas. It's not witch-crafty or anything! I suggest it to all moms!"

Placenta capsulation is not FDA-approved, ABC News notes, but it has become more and more popular as pregnant women turn to practices like midwifery and home births. Despite its nutritional value, the placenta hasn't been scientifically proven to help any ailments.

"There is certainly a potential medicinal use," Dr. David Katz, founder of the Yale Prevention Center, previously told ABC News. "This is a time-honored cultural practice of eating the placenta. It is nutrient-rich and a source of hormones."

Hmm are other pregnant celebs like Kim Kardashian and Kate Middleton planning to eat their baby's placentas as well?