Meri Perra blogs about the challenges she and her partner face in trying to raise their girls with feminist values
When you give birth at home, disposing of the placenta, just like the rest of the clean up, is your responsibility. You can’t say to the midwives, “No, no thank you. You take it.” We’ve tried.
That’s how we learned that in Toronto, placentas go in the green bin. Easy-peasy: your midwife simply wraps that placenta up in many plastic bags, and gives it to you. A slightly gross bundle of blood along with your bundle of joy.
After our first child, my partner discreetly tossed the disguised organ in the bin on pick up day. We didn’t think twice. Operation get rid of birth waste completed.
When our dear Lileith came almost two years ago, it wasn’t quite that simple. Toronto city workers were on strike. There was no green bin pick up.
