Matthew McConaughey Plants Baby's Placenta

Matthew McConaughey has confirmed his hippie status by announcing that he's going to bury his new baby's placenta in his orchard.

Aparently, the idea came to him following a trip to Australia. "When I was in Australia, they had a placenta tree that was on the river......and all the placentas of all that tribe, all that clan, whatever Aboriginal tribe that was, all the placentas went under that one tree and it was this huge behemoth of just health and strength."

The idea of planting a placenta is one that has been around for a long time, not only in Aboriginal culture, but also in other cultures. The Maori believe that planting the placenta reinforces our bond with the earth, as do the native Hawaiians, the Navajo, and the Costa Ricans. There can be no denying that it is extremely nutritious for the soil, and seems a more poetic way of dealing with the placenta when compared to the incinerator found in most western hospitals!

Giving birth in the West has become such a clinical event that it's great to see celebrities promoting this a more natural approach.

It seems that burying the placenta is becoming more popular in the UK, with placenta-planting ceremonies being considered an appropriately symbolic way of marking the arrival of a new child.