text: Healing: Mothers have reported powerful properting from eating their placenta. Pictured: a smoothie . There is a tall glass of something very red and rather alarming on the kitchen counter when I meet Kathryn Beale at her three-bedroom home in Swindon. More scary still, she appears to be drinking it. Fortunately it soon becomes clear that my suspicions are unwarranted, as the substance in the tumbler is nothing more troubling than plain old fruit juice. But I am here because Kathryn is a national expert in the art of the strange foodstuff, and one very disconcerting product in particular. The 41-year-old mother-of-two is part of a rapidly growing cottage industry that prepares fresh placenta for new mothers. Along with some 60 other specialists in this country, she whizzes it into smoothies, or grinds it into pills for women convinced of its health benefits. Mothers have reported powerful healing properties, saying that eating their own placenta (the blood-filled organ that supports the foetus in the womb) has helped to increase their milk supply, reduce post-natal bleeding, stabilise blood pressure, and, crucially, provide them with more energy to care for their babies. Celebrities who have eaten their own placentas include Hollywood actresses January Jones and Alicia Silverstone and Atomic Kitten singer Natasha Hamilton. Kathryn has had no reported cases of food poisoning among her clients. Nor, for that matter, has any other practitioner in the 70-strong Independent Placenta Encapsulation Network (IPEN), of which Kathryn is a member. IPEN estimates that between 4,000 and 5,000 women have used the service since it started in 2010, the majority in Britain. Yet Kathryn is in despair, having found herself at the centre of a storm which could not only destroy her own business, but help put an end to placenta-eating across the country. Scroll down for video . Natural: Kathryn Beale whizzes plcenta into smoothies or into pills for women convinced of its health benefits . Swindon Council is claiming that her services pose a danger to the mothers she is trying to help, and are taking her to court saying they want to stop her from trading. They have already taken half her essential kit, including a grinder and a pill-maker, meaning she can no longer provide her service. She said: ‘It does seem like a witch-hunt. Why should they be doing everything they can to stop me providing a service which I believe helps new mothers? Yes, some people might be squeamish about it, but that doesn’t give the council the right to just close me down.’ IPEN director Lynnea Shrief lost her court battle against Dacorum Council in Hertfordshire last year. She believes the legal action is part of a national move to shut down the industry. Three other IPEN businesses have also faced opposition from local authorities. Benefits: Mothers say eating placenta has helped to increase their milk supply and reduce post-natal bleeding. Pictured: Placenta capsules . It was in March that the council took action against Kathryn. Health bosses claimed that dangerous microbes would multiply while the placenta was being processed in her kitchen – with the risk of poisoning the mother. Last month, Swindon failed to convince a magistrate to grant a hygiene emergency prohibition order against Kathryn, who contested the order. Despite noting her various food-safety certificates, and failing to advise how she might satisfy their health risk concerns, the council is trying again and she will re-appear in court in May. Kathryn says of the council’s inspection: ‘It was clear they didn’t know how a maternity ward works. They had the impression that placentas were just falling out of women all over the floor and being put into buckets with other placentas. It’s just not the case.’ Kathryn provides her clients – mostly well-educated, professional women – with a large zip-lock bag into which the placenta is placed. The bagged organ is then put into a large leak-proof plastic box, which goes into a cool bag packed with ice packs ready for Kathryn to collect. Celebrities who have eaten their own placentas include Mad Men star January Jones (left) and Atomic Kitten singer Natasha Hamilton (right) If the mother has requested a £20 placenta smoothie at the birth, Kathryn blends some with fruit and apple juice using a hand-held blender. She takes the remainder home and either steams the organ with lemon, ginger and green chilli, or dries slices of placenta in a dehydrator before grinding the pieces into a powder which she makes into capsules. This service costs £150. Kathryn, a former primary school teacher turned birth ‘doula’ – a non-medical supporter for expectant mothers – became interested in placenta consumption after watching chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall flambee one on TV. She added placenta processing to her birth doula business in March 2013 after a day-long IPEN training course. She obtained certificates in food safety for manufacturing, infection control, and HACCP, a food safety management system. A Swindon Council spokesman said: ‘Preparation of foodstuffs using human placenta in this way can present a number of potentially serious health risks to those who consume them. We are legally obliged to investigate and take whatever steps are necessary to protect consumers.’ A key genetic mutation could explain why some children who catch flu are left fighting for their lives in hospital – while others just need a day or two in bed. Scientists discovered the mutation after studying a two-year-old French girl who nearly died from the flu. They found she was particularly vulnerable because she had inherited a rare double genetic mutation from both of her parents which meant she was unable to produce a protein called interferon. Interferon, which is commercially available, helps the immune system attack flu and could now be used to save young victims. Professor Jean-Laurent Casanova, from the Imagine Institute of Genetic Diseases in Paris, and the St Giles Laboratory of Human Genetics of Infectious Disease at Rockefeller University in the US, said: ‘This finding suggests that one could treat severe childhood flu with interferon.’ The girl, who was critically ill with flu in 2011, has not had the virus since, after being vaccinated annually. The researchers’ findings have been published in the journal Science.
target: Kathryn Beale, 41, is a national expert in the art of the strange foodstuff .
  She whizzes placentas into smoothies, or grinds it into pills for mothers .
  Mothers have reported powerful healing properties from eating the organ .
  Includes increase in milk supply, reduction in post-natal bleeding, stabilising blood pressure and more energy to care for their babies .