C section with anterior low placenta

[LadyoftheLake123]

DC1 and I'm booked for an ELCS in early Oct due to pre-existing medical condition. I'm having extra scans for various reasons and the latest two have shown that my placenta is anterior and low. The doctor said this is not necessarily a problem but likely to result in more bleeding, as the surgeons would need to cut through the placenta to get the baby out... Last scan was at 28 weeks so obviously still possible placenta could move up (fingers crossed), but I'm wondering how things will be if it doesn't. Has anyone else experienced this? What was your experience of the surgery, if so?

Bumping this up... has anyone experienced this?

Was it a senior obstetrician that said they'd go "through the placenta"?

The placental site is likely to change as your pregnancy progresses. Either way they'll be quite used to this and will be able to make arrangements to account for any additional bleeding that there might be from having a low anterior placenta.

Hi, I read this post the other day and intended to reply but it's hard to log in frequently with small baby and all the other work...

I had a planned Cesarian few months ago due to low lying placenta which was also anterior. Although everyone told me throughout the pregnancy "yeah it will move up no worries" this hasn't happened or not to the sufficient degree. CS was my preferred method of delivery anyway so I wasn't upset. What I struggled with was periodic bleeding in late pregnancy (week 31 and later) which meant I had to stay in hospital for several weeks prior to delivery for monitoring and risk management.

As for the operation - the surgeon did, I believe, have to cut through it to deliver the baby. This in combination with usual surgery risks and factors resulted in PPH of about 1.5 L and my baby being pulled out with forceps (which I found out later). Thankfully I didn't need a transfusion but I was a bit out of it and BF was impacted. Prior to the operation doctors talked me through the main risks and various procedures to manage the bleeding - they have several standard methods by which they achieve this including recyling your own blood etc. I got the impression this is business as usual to them and nobody seemed particularly concerned with the upcoming operation itself (they were more concerned with placenta playing up before the scheduled CS). All in all, although the surgery was a bit stressful and I could sense the urgency in the room, the process and the outcome was no worse and probably better than EMCs, it was only slightly more complicated than an ELC with no anterior, low lying placenta and/or other medical issues. Healthy mother and baby and the stress soon forgotten.

I hope this helps

Thank you for your responses, and great to hear you and baby are well spring81. I've got a scan on Monday (when I'll be nearly 32 weeks) so will see what they say then. Fingers crossed! Xx

Thank you, best of luck with everything!

Hooray, scan shows it has moved! Thanks for all the advice x