The placenta is an organ of the body shared by the mother and the baby. It sustains the baby's life while in utero. Sometimes, families have a desire to take home not only their babies, but their placentas, too, after the mother gives birth to both. Why? Reasons vary, but some mothers have the placenta encapsulated and ingest it in pill form after birth in order to help stablize their hormonal changes after birth.
However, many hospitals regard the placenta as "medical waste." As such, they have policies against releasing it to the mother--even though it was a part of her own body. So it has now become necessary in some cases to sign a waiver at the hospital in order to obtain your own placenta.
To learn more about how to do this, see a very useful website which has a waiver form on it:
http://www.stlouisdoula.net/Services/Hospital_Release.html
This website accurately points out that in a recent case in Nevada, Swanson vs. Sunrise Hospital, the judge declared the placenta was the property of the mother and she has the right to take it home.
