And that's ONE News for Monday. Now here's Close Up. Tonight on Close Up ` the home business turning human placentas into health supplements. From champion to caregiver ` Conrad Smith's mission to Africa. The more you learn about it, you realise, you know, how lucky we are. And the all-you-can-eat extravaganza kicking off oyster season. Due to the live nature of Close Up, captions for some items may be incomplete. ONE News captions by Richard Edmunds and Diana Beeby. Close Up captions by Faith Hamblyn and Desney Thorogood. Good evening. Let's get this out there right now. The story we are about to screen is challenging, to say the least. Some scenes may disturb. It's about the practice of preparing and eating human placentas. It's a practice found in some ancient medicines and has gone in and out of fashion in the west. Burying it in the garden was popular for a while. Now Ashburton mum Kirsty Ren is offering a service to turn it into digestible pills or, for the braver, smoothies. Then there's the art spin-off. Yes, it sounds quite out there, and it's not always pretty to watch, but is Kirsty on to something? Here's Abby Scott. In a suburban home, in a suburban kitchen, Kirsty Ren has a rather unusual delivery. It's so exciting to open up the bag and pull it out, cos they're all so different, and they're really really beautiful. You don't seem like a crazy hippy or witchdoctor. You seem quite normal. I am quite normal, yes. But a few times a week this normal mother of two processes human placenta on her kitchen bench, a bench she says is sterile. I don't see it as unusual in any way to have placentas in my kitchen, which I know probably sounds quite nuts. I think it takes a certain kind of person to see the beauty, because it's covered in blood and, you know, it's an organ, so it's kind of a little bit gross to some people. Oh, lovely. Even Kirsty hasn't always seen the beauty in placentas. Cheese. Cheese. When her daughter Sophie was born, she had no interest in even keeping the placenta. But following a bout of postnatal depression, she did some research and thought with baby number two, placenta could help. Raw capsules, which is the way I usually do it, they are described by a lot of people as 'happy pills'. Kirsty says placentas are rich in iron and hormones and they help with things like mood and milk supply. But for many the thought of eating this is too much for even a mother's love. If the idea of eating the placenta raw icks you out, I totally understand that, cos I originally thought that I wouldn't be able to eat it raw either. I've heard of stories of people who their midwife goes, 'Do you want to have a look at the placenta?' And they have a look and they vomit. So Kirsty helps get rid of the ick factor by packaging the placenta up in a palatable pill, but first she creates art,... Ah, there we go. That one is beautiful. ...placenta prints using blood and then plant-based paints for colour. The idea is to get the veins looking like branches of a tree. There are some people who really really love the prints, and then there are some people who are only sending me their placenta so that they can get the benefits of it, and they don't want to know what it looks like, and they don't want anything to, sort of, remember it. She also shapes the umbilical cord so that once it's dehydrated, it's a unique keepsake. You can actually see the veins in there and where the clots were and that sort of thing. For Kirsty this is all part of the process, a once-in-a-lifetime chance to create mementos before the placenta is cut into pieces, dehydrated, crushed and put into capsules. You can just chop the placenta up. I have a friend who chopped hers up and froze it in pill-sized chunks and just ate it, and that is awesome, because raw is the best way to have it. But not everyone can handle raw, so encapsulation is the next best option. Bec Barrer is one of the few willing to try it raw. BLENDER BUZZES She's been relying on donor breast milk for 7-month-old Bentley and is using placenta to try and restimulate her milk production. Doesn't taste like placenta, does it? No, berries and banana. Bec didn't keep her placenta following birth. My midwife asked if I wanted to see it, and I said, 'Ew, no.' Now she's eating donated placenta, but most people use their own, sending the raw or frozen organ to Kirsty getting back a neat jar of capsules. You don't even have to look at your placenta. The midwife can put it into a bag and put it in the chilly bin for you, and then you get a jar of capsules, and it looks just like a normal multivitamin. Is it to make money? You would never make enough money doing placentas. It's not something that you do to get rich; you do it to help people. I've got a sliding fee scale, so if someone can't afford the full fee, then they can pay just what they can afford. The standard fee is $300, but Kirsty just wants everyone to be able to access the benefits. I get great feedback afterwards of, sort of, the fog has lifted, or one lady said, 'I thought having a new baby was supposed to be really hard, but I'm finding this easy.' If there is a problem that you're encountering that you would do anything to fix, this is that anything. The 23-year-old has already processed around 30 placentas ` some fresh, some frozen ` and says demand has been phenomenal, so much so that she's trained others around the country. It's such an amazing gift to be giving people, I think, and I just really love being able to help. So, does this idea have any medical merit? Dr Martin Sowter is the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologist's man on these matters. He's also on call at Auckland Hospital, so I caught up with him in-between patients. No, it's something that's been around for a long, long time. I can certainly remember it back 20 years ago, there was a vogue for it. It seemed to disappear, but it seems to have come back to fashion on the fringes again. You talk about coming back into fashion; has there been any scientific studies or endorsement of it? Very little. It's fair to say there's probably almost no scientific evidence at all. And I think placenta capsules or tablets have been around in Chinese medicine for, you know, hundreds of years if not thousands of years, but then so has bear bile and tiger bones, so I think, you know, there's probably not a great deal of evidence that it works, even in Chinese medicine. As far as its use by women who've recently delivered ` it's something that comes back from time to time. I think it's a bit of a cottage industry in the States and there'll be any number of people there offering that service, but it's something that's quite new to NZ. I detect you're not a big fan. No. I mean, I think it'd be wrong to dismiss it, and there may be a role for a randomised trial where one group of women would have a placebo and one would have placenta tablets and they could look at outcomes such as postnatal depression or anaemia. But I think it's unlikely to show a great deal of difference. What studies there are are all tiny, and all are very old. I mean, certainly with the person we've talked to here, I mean, they genuinely believe they're doing something good. In other countries, it can turn into a bit of a business, can't it? Yes. I think if you head off into Google-land, you'll find any number of people who'll do it for you in the States or offer you franchises to allow you to do it yourself if you're gonna set up as a placenta-encapsulation specialist. So yes, it certainly is a cottage industry of reasonable size, I think, in some parts of the world. Is it cannibalism? Well, no. I mean, possibly, but I think, you know, most mammals eat the placenta or apparently eat their placenta, so... Because that's one of the arguments, isn't it? > Yeah. People say look in the animal kingdom ` other mammals do this. > Yes, but they also eat their young and throw their, you know, unwanted chicks out of the nest. So I don't think we can necessarily extrapolate that through to what we should do as humans. Obviously if you're undernourished, there may be some calorific value, there'll be some iron there, but I think most people are reasonably well nourished and don't need to eat their placenta for their own well being postnatally. It could be something, though, that people, if they believe it's helping them, may well do so. There may well be a placebo effect. I mean, one of the postulated benefits is its effect on postnatal depression. I think my one concern I would have with that is there are some very effective treatments for postnatal depression, and postnatal depression is a very, you know, potentially devastating and surprisingly common problem, so the last thing you want to be taking is something that may be little better than a placebo when you could benefit from proven and more effective medical interventions. So while there's not a huge weight of science behind it, is there anything to suggest that it could be dangerous? I think that it's safe. Obviously, one concern is that this a food product and it's dried meat, essentially, and you are asking somebody to encapsulate it for you, so I think you need to be fairly sure that they comply appropriately with whatever food safety standards there are in producing it. And it is very much a cottage industry, so I'd be concerned that, you know, some people may not be producing tablets in as safe a way as they could. Would you eat it? > Not personally, but I certainly would have no objection if people wanted to encapsulate their placentas, and indeed, you know, some people may actually want to eat their placenta. That seems to be very unusual. Just a last thing ` does it make any difference if you eat your own or someone else's? Who knows? I think, again, those are things that would probably merit study, but the evidence for its benefit, at the moment, is very very limited. Dr Martin Sowter, thanks for your time. > OK. Thank you. So what's you view on the placenta ` bin it, bury it or eat it? We'd like to hear your views. Go to our website or email us at closeup@tvnz.co.nz and we're on Facebook too ` facebook.com/close up Coming up ` All Black Conrad Smith on making the most of his celebrity status. And just how many oysters could you handle in one sitting? Score update ` how many so far? Three dozen oysters. We're all used to seeing celebrities flogging some good cause somewhere in the world. And let's be honest ` many charities know the dollar value a famous person can bring to the fund raising. But are we becoming more cynical about their motives, and does that affect how much we give? Tonight Mark Crysell meets an All Black who decided to take a look at Africa for himself and came back a changed man. AFRICAN PERCUSSION MUSIC As rugby players, we meet a lot of people pushing a charity. He has a great deal of integrity. MUSIC INTENSIFIES You want to help them all. He's intelligent. < Is Cass kind of` is she pretty persuasive? (CHUCKLES) That's one way of putting it. Are you a pushy person? > (LAUGHS) Why did you think to ask that so soon? Kenya is a long way away from Eden Park that nerve-racking night back in October. But not long after he'd helped the All Blacks win the Rugby World Cup, Conrad Smith got down with these Kenyan kids. The more you learn about it, you realise, you know, how lucky we are. These are the orphans of the Holding Hands Children's Home. Rugby's not really their thing, and the All Blacks are something of a mystery. They'd introduce me and say, 'Played on TV,' and the kids would all go, 'Wow,' but they're pretty, uh` they only know soccer over there. Did they think the ball was the wrong shape? (CHUCKLES) Yeah, it was quite confusing for them, but they had good fun. It was just having a ball and having a run-round. It's not something they get to do, you know, too much. These 4- to 5-year-olds had a tough start to life. They were living on this dumpsite before they were rescued by the Kiwi-based charity So They Can. We get called heroes for playing rugby, but, man, what they do, it's unreal. The charity is run by Wellington mother of four Cass Treadwell. It costs $700,000 a year to keep all this going, and Cass knows how a famous name can help fill coffers. Some people might say, yes, I'm incredibly bossy. Of course, I just say I'm just determined. She has to be. There are always those who are cynical about celebrities trying to change the world. Conrad Smith was one of them. The charity was approached by people who wanted to follow us with a camera, but I didn't want any of that. We wanted to do it to see it for ourselves. He paid his own way over there, and what he saw was hundreds of thousands of Kenyans forced to live as refugees in their own country after a spate of murderous tribal violence. It was basic genocide. One tribe tried to massacre the other tribe so they weren't around to vote. In Nakuru, around 1000 live on the local dump, where they compete for food with goats, pigs and vultures. It's horrible. Children are dying there. We, sort of, spent about a half hour walking through that and didn't say too much, and then the whole, sort of, car ride back, we didn't talk too much either, so things like that are pretty hard to take. Conrad and his partner, Lee, taught rugby, did a bit of DIY and just generally hung out with the teachers and kids of the Holding Hands Children's Home. The kids are great. You know, they're like kids anywhere. You throw a ball around, and they start yelling and screaming and want to play. But underneath the playing and laughing, one of the orphanage's workers has discovered these children are carrying a dark secret from the dumpsite. So far we've discovered that of the 20 girls there, 18 of them were raped regularly... regularly ` at least once a month. They've all been raped over 10 times. It just was a common occurrence. And the men` the boys there, sorry` the boys` the 4- and 5-year-old boys she's spoken to at the moment, she's discovered about 12 of the 20 have been as well. It is a horrendous situation, and the last time Cass was in Kenya, she called a special meeting with the children. And I sat them down, and I said, 'OK, what's most important? Write pictures of what's most important to you in your home.' And all of them drew a wall. It will cost around $70,000 dollars to build the wall. It's just the physical presence of having the wall. People know it's a no-go zone. They know they're not going to get through. That's what you want at the orphanage? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It will be Conrad's wall. The volunteers over there are the real celebrities doing all the hard work, and all they want you to do is come back and ask for some help to make their job easier, so you sort of feel it's the least you can do. And if you'd like to contribute to Conrad's wall, you can go to www.sotheycan.org or email cassandra@sotheycan.org Coming up ` oyster overload. We meet the people paying $150 for all they can eat. So this is a bit of a treat, though? Oh yes, but it's worth every mouthful. You can divide the world up into those who love oysters and those who... well, they might have the same reaction as many to the placenta story. But if you are a devotee of oysters, the ultimate are the Bluffies. The oysters from the freezing waters of Foveaux Strait are considered simply the best, which is why mad keen Aucklanders are willing to shell out $150 a head for a unique lunch. At the season opening, Auckland Soul restaurant offers freshly shucked oysters ` raw and cooked, but all you can eat over three hours. You'd need to be hungry. CASTANET MUSIC WOMAN: They are fat and luscious. Delectable. But accessing that taste is another matter. CASTANET MUSIC CONTINUES Meet the master shuckers. What does it take to be a good shucker? Concentration, mainly. You'd never do yourself an injury? No, never. Not so far, anyway. About 270 dozen, I think. 270 dozen ` that's over 2000 oysters. Yeah. Same tomorrow. Love them. Yeah. I eat them every day. I love opening, yeah. Yeah. But I don't like eating them. You don't like eating them? No, I don't eat them. No. (CHUCKLES) Is there something wrong with her? Must be. > Well, at least you won't be sliding any down while you are doing the job. No, I'm not ripping anyone off. BOTH LAUGH This is an oyster-lovers only event. And you'd have to be,... Every year we are here. ...to shell out $150 a head. < And six or seven dozen? We've had six, we think, each last year while we were here. Yeah. < We are going to keep an eye on you girls today, all right? We're gonna see how it goes. So this is a bit of a treat, though? Yes, but it's worth every mouthful. I try and make sure that I my money's worth, and I think my record is about eight dozen. < Eight dozen? Pretty much. It was a long day. Its a veritable who's who of Auckland, all here for their love of something southern. It's just a great delicacy, isn't it? You know, I mean, Bluff oysters in NZ, well... < So the men are just the pretenders? Oh yeah. We wouldn't bring the men along. No. This is our day. WOMEN LAUGH Now, I swear I saw the owner shudder when your table came in. Cos she thought, 'There goes the profit margin.' (CHUCKLES) Yeah, she did, she did. In fact, she pointed me towards you and said, 'Look, he's the only man who can beat us. It's when they say we did seven dozen each last time, so can we beat it this year. But I do think this year's are looking bigger than last year's. I think they really are a lot plumper, so I'm not sure they will get to the seven dozen each this year. We have got oysters five different ways. We have the oysters Charles Dickens, which is a beef oyster pie. We are also doing them crumbed with wasabi mayonnaise ` that's gonna be deep fried. We're doing Kilpatrick with bacon, Worchester sauce and onions just caramelised under the salamander. What's the favourite? My favourite? Just gotta have them natural with a bit of lemon juice, Tabasco sauce. That, for me, is how to eat oysters. Here we go. WOMEN: Ooh. Ooh. Who's in first? The lemon. What about the lemon? Mmm. (CHUCKLES) Ooh, lovely. Delicious. Mmm. So good. It just slithered down. I don't think I tasted it. (CHUCKLES) You came from the States for this? Yes. Primarily, yes. Right. We've missed it year after year, and this year, we decided we weren't going to miss it again. Our friends make us jealous every time they send a postcard from here with the picture of the oysters. Mm-hm. You love oysters? Oh, yes, but we haven't eaten enough yet, though. We love Bluff oysters especially. CASTANET MUSIC Back to the chucking, Keith is so good... Oh, I've been at it since I was a kid. ...he can do it blindfolded. Guess what I've found, Keith. What's that? Oh no. It's a blindfold. Blindfold. We are going so see how good this guy really is. CASTANET MUSIC CONTINUES You weren't joking, were you? No. Never do. He's pretty impressive, isn't he? He's very impressive. Yeah. And as the three-hour window draws to a close... Hey, well done. That was impressive. Eh? ALL CHUCKLE Did they get their money's worth? Score update ` how many so far? Three dozen oysters. Three for you. Yes. Three dozen for me as well. Three. We are on the up from three. Up from three? Up from three. I think Joe is still topping me. I think he'd be on seven dozen; I think I'm close to six. I think we could get a couple more in. Yeah, mate. It won't be hard. It's just about over. (LAUGHS) We will leave when we are ready. CASTANET MUSIC And we've feedback now, and it's on the placenta story. Rachael says... Barbara writes... Siobhan says... Darren says... Kerry says... Mark has a crack with, 'It seems Close Up wants to be the placenta of attention. 'Otherwise they might want to focus on something truly newsworthy.' A LOT OF IT WASN'T ABOUT THE IDEA BUT IT WAS DINNER TIME! And that's NZ Close Up. Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air.