‘Unexpected’ Spoilers: Why did a worried Myrka Cantu joke about selling her placenta on the black market?
After her mom kicked her out Myrka Cantu is entirely dependent on her boyfriend Ethan Ybarra’s parents. His parents have not only showered love and support to the teenage parents, they have also thrown an extravagant gender reveal party and built a beautiful nursery for the baby on the way.
In the January 17 episode, Myrka and Ethan’s mother prepare for a big barbeque and Myrka casually talks about the placenta being very rich in vitamins. She then jokes that she has been wondering if she could sell her placenta on the black market. Ethan’s mom confesses that she had never heard of such a thing as selling placenta.
Kim Kardashian West (who is a huge promoter of eating placenta after birth) after giving birth to her second child with husband Kanye West, Saint, in 2015, had decided to encapsulate her placenta to try and avoid postpartum depression.
She said, “I’m having it freeze-dried and made into a pill form — not actually fry it like a steak and eat it (which some people do, BTW),” she shared in a post on her website. "Every time I take a pill, I feel a surge of energy and feel really healthy and good. I totally recommend it for anyone considering it!”
Her elder sister, Kourtney Kardashian posted an Instagram picture of her placenta pills following the birth of Reign, her third child with Scott Disick, in 2015. "Yummy...PLACENTA pills! No joke...I will be sad when my placenta pills run out. They are life changing!" the star captioned the photo, including hashtags #benefits and #lookitup.
Other celebrities who have confessed to inculcating their placentas in their diet after giving birth for health benefits and to beat the baby blues are Hilary Duff, Crissy Teigen, Nikki Reed, Katherine Heigl, Christina Anstead and others.
However, this is probably the first time an expecting mother has thought about selling her placenta. It makes us wonder if Myrka is worried about her financial situation if Ethan’s parents stop supporting her given the fact that she has no job and her career as a pregnant school student is not secure.
On the January 10 episode of ‘Unexpected’, Myrka’s mother Lilliana came to the gender reveal party that Ethan’s parents have arranged to show her support. But in the confession round, Myrka confessed that she was scared her mother would go back to being insensitive and harsh at any point in time and she doesn’t trust her.
It is possible that the 16-year-old is feeling uncertain about her future knowing that she is dependent on other people to look after her and the baby. Myrka said she loved Ethan’s parents and the fact that they keep planning different activities every day where the whole family can participate.
Catch ‘Unexpected’ on Sundays at 10 pm ET/PT on TLC.