Certified Placenta Encapsulation Specialist
Tara Carpenter, CPES.
Hormonal support for new mothers in Vermont, since 2011.
![](https://i0.wp.com/happybellies.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Placenta-presentation-09.jpg?resize=580%2C572&ssl=1)
Note: I am on leave of absence until July 1st 2024. You may book online if your estimated due date is after this date.
Since I was two years old, my mother had a family day-care in our home and later opened Harborside Montessori School for toddlers. When I was 5 years old, I walked our neighborhood looking for pink ‘n blue balloons announcing a baby’s birth; I knocked on door and gave a homemade mother’s helper card. I charged .25 cents per hour. Our home was the hub for like-minded interested people looking to homebirth and eat organically.
![](https://i0.wp.com/happybellies.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/image.png?resize=580%2C946&ssl=1)
I knew my life work would involve mothers and babies.
When I was 6 and 9, I watched my little sister and then my little brother be born at home …. my job was to catch the baby and cut umbilical cord! As a teenager I held a playgroup each Saturday morning for children whose mothers wanted to do the weekly shop. I became a loved babysitter; a fun job that sustained me throughout my schooling years.
I remember one day our neighbor walking into our home with her baby (photo above) who was crying nonstop. The mother was beside herself and put the baby in my arms; in minutes he fell asleep to my constant song and movements, his body a warm weight on my arm.
![](https://i0.wp.com/happybellies.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Image-5.jpg?resize=580%2C453&ssl=1)
After having my own babies, I learned a Chinese method for preparing tonifying capsules with a new mother’s placenta to help her be hormonally balanced, heal tears, stitches, general discomfort, etc. Though I was no longer having babies myself, I decided that I could help other new mothers to benefit from this medicine as there was only 1 other Encapsulationist at the time trained in Vermont and she was phasing out of offering this service. In 2010, I trained with Jodi Selander to be a Certified Placenta Encapsulation Specialist (CPES.); see process here.
![](https://i0.wp.com/happybellies.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/IMG_20210607_111104_082-1.jpg?resize=580%2C460&ssl=1)
Placenta capsules come in plain or grape-flavor.
Placenta is a hormonal-rich food traditionally revered as nutritionally superior; every mammal, except whales kangaroos, ingest it after birth. Chinese mothers are routinely sent home from the hospital with the placenta. Placenta can replenish a woman‘s hormonal and nutritional needs after the laborious work of growing baby and giving birth.
Note: I am on leave of absence until July 15th 2024. You may book online if your estimated due date is after this date.
![](https://i0.wp.com/happybellies.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/PXL_20230820_230631826.jpg?resize=580%2C774&ssl=1)