TV presenter plans to eat 'encapsulated' placenta to 'stave off post-natal depression'

Television presenter Anna Williamson intends to ward off post-natal depression by eating her own "encapsulated" placenta.

The National Lottery Awards presenter said she heard about its alleged ability to "help stave off the dreaded post-natal depression."

Williamson is an outspoken campaigner for the awareness and destigmatisation of mental health problems. She also suffered from anxiety - which increases her risk of developing post-natal depression.

"I'm delighted, and very lucky, to say that I've had a fairly straightforward pregnancy," she told TantrumXYZ.

"But I'd be lying if I said there hadn't been a few days along the way where the old anxious and low mood 'black cloud' feelings have threatened to creep back in."

She is expecting her first child with husband Alex Di Pasquale later this month and will join a growing number of women using placenta pills.

Coleen Rooney, Kim Kardashian and January Jones have all embraced the recent trend.

Williamson said: "Before I got pregnant, I'd read stories and seen TV programmes about women who had decided to eat theirs after giving birth. My first reaction was 'Eughh!' My second was, 'Why?!'"

She added a "reputable company" with "stringent hygiene standards" will turn the placenta into capsules for Williamson to eat for the sum of £185.

"Eating a great hulk of meat, particularly if it's come from inside me, is never going to happen. But there is a way of getting these apparently PND-busting nutrients into me, after the baby is born, in a palatable way", she added.