See what sweetalyssm got me started on?

http://edsitewa.iinet.net.au/birth rites/placent.html

researched the words “placenta” and “afterbirth” in the Greater Oxford English Dictionary and found some interesting associations. Placenta comes from the Latin word for cake, and placent, an obsolete English word, means a round, flat cake – placent also means pleasing and gratifying. Listed under afterbirth was the quotation, “All afterbirths of penitential moans are consumed in living streams of bliss”.The word placenta is common to French, Spanish, Italian and English. In German two words for placenta are Mutterkuchen, literally mother cake, and Fruchtkuchen, fruit cake. Our birthday celebrations always include a ceremonial cake with candles, traditionally a rich fruit cake made with nuts and dried fruits. Maybe, just maybe, this cake is symbolic of the placenta at birth. The placenta, as we know , is the life support system of the baby in utero and is sometimes referred to by poets as the tree of life, so perhaps it is symbolized in an anniversary celebration of the rite of birth.