Tell us about yourself and your background
I’m 41 years of age and a mum of three children. I left school with zero qualifications due to the late diagnosis of dyslexia. I was then kind of pushed into hairdressing by my mum, which I loved doing for many years, but it just didn’t set me on fire. At 23, I went through a devastating miscarriage at 20 weeks gestation, and it was then that I realised the huge gaps in maternity care. I toyed with the idea of becoming a midwife for a while, but I just couldn’t see how I could change the whole system. I love everything about birth and babies, and it wasn’t until my 30’s that I realised this is where I wanted to be. I do still have midwifery on my bucket list, and I’d also love to foster children when my kids leave home. I’m very laid back, but also thrive in chaos. I must constantly be busy.
What inspired you to found Placenta Plus?
After the birth of my second daughter, I suffered from bad postnatal depression. I didn’t plan on having any more children, and the main reason being I was told I would get postnatal depression again. When I fell pregnant with my third baby, I researched natural remedies to help with PND, and placenta encapsulation came up. I was excited to try it, but soon realised that there wasn’t any specialist operating to a standard I felt comfortable with. So, I decided to train and process my own placenta.
Is your venture self-funded, or did you raise investment?
I self-funded my company for the first 9 years of business, but when we decided to go global, we opened to investors.
What is your mission?
I think my mission is to ensure woman have options and feel supported through their fourth trimester.
As the country’s only laboratory-based provider, what services do you provide?
We provide placenta encapsulation to the highest standards with high quality products for both mum and baby.
What is the Placenta Plus process?
The process is simple on the client’s end, they simply book in via our website, and we deliver a hospital kit to their home. When it’s time to go to hospital to have the baby, they give the kit to the midwife, and she will pack it once baby arrives. Once baby is here the birth partner calls us any hour of the day and we come to the hospital and collect the placenta. The process takes around 24-48hrs and we then deliver products back to mum.
What products do you offer for post-natal support?
We offer a wide range of products to support the postnatal journey we have 3 options of pills, simple (energising), steamed (calming), and 50/50 (half and half of simple and steamed). We also offer a Gummy for mums who struggle swallowing pills. There’s a tincture which is amazing as it has no use by date and can last right through menopause. This is a liquid form of your placenta pills and has all the same benefits. We have cosmetics for both mum and baby, all natural ingredients and handmade.
How did you work out which products to sell when you first launched? And how to produce/manufacture them?
The first product I focused on was placenta pills I didn’t really look at anything else until I’d really gained knowledge of how the placenta could be used in other products. For me, the main thing when we launched was to ensure mums could trust us and our process because I had been a mum looking for a specialist and I couldn’t find anyone I trusted. So, setting up a lab was crucial for me and being transparent with mums on how we work and safety measured we take.
What are the main benefits of your products?
The main benefits are: Increased energy levels, replenished iron levels, reduced risks of PND, no baby blues, reduced post-birth bleeding, and overall faster recovery.
How have you chosen the products to introduce to your product line as you have grown the business?
I think everything has just had a natural progression
We developed gummies in response to a friend wanting to use her placenta in her recovery, but not being able to swallow pills. That then made me think of how many other women may have this problem, so I started work on developing the Gummy. Then the sheet mask came from reading about celebrities having sheep placenta facials so again I thought, why not use your own placenta?
What has been your biggest success as a company?
I think in all honesty it’s been creating jobs and watching people flourish. We have worked with some amazing celebrities and hit huge milestones with opening in other countries but none of that would have been possible without the amazing team of staff.
What does a day in your life look like?
Hectic! I wake up around 6am sometimes a bit earlier, I have a coffee and jump on a call/email with my Dubai team. I then wake my kids up around 7am and the school run madness starts. Once the kids are dropped off, I head into the office around 9.30am and start my day in Placenta Plus UK. I normally leave the office at 2.30pm to collect my kids from school. I get home have a coffee and then jump online to talk to the team in LA my working day finishes around 10pm.
What are your goals for the next decade?
I think my personal goals are to try and create more time for myself, but my company’s goals are to expand to more locations across the world.
Where can readers find out more?
www
placentaplus.ae