Two lobed placenta/retained placenta

[Kinsters]

For DD my placenta was double lobed (one big heart shaped piece and then a smaller piece attached to this by some big blood vessels). It ended up being retained which I've read the two are correlated. Has anyone else had this and did it happen again on a second pregnancy?

I've got my 20 week scan tomorrow - not sure if this is something they're able to check for? I didn't actually have a 20 week scan with DD as I'm not in the UK and the hospital I was at didn't offer it.

Hey, in my first pregnancy I had two lobes too. The second one didn't come out and the midwife didn't check. I ended up having a major bleed and needing emergency surgery. I'm now 35w had have a normal placenta this time, apparently its very rare for it to occur again. I'm still quite scare even though I know there is only one 😅

If you had a retained placenta in a previous birth, you'll be considered as at higher risk of it occurring again whatever the likely cause. The standard response is to have a syntocinon drip during the third phase of labour to encourage the placenta to be pushed out. It's usually effective but 9f course cannot be 100% guaranteed to work.

@bluemoon13 that's good to know! I'll make sure to mention it at the scan and see if it can be confirmed.

@HauntedDishcloth that's good to know, I will discuss it with my Dr and see if that's what they recommend here as well.

I had a retained placenta (not double-lobbed) with DD pregnancy. But with DS pregnancy consultant said it was unlikely to happen again. In the end I had to have a csection as DS went back up inside after waters had gone, so they removed the placenta at the same time.

@HauntedDishcloth

If you had a retained placenta in a previous birth, you'll be considered as at higher risk of it occurring again whatever the likely cause. The standard response is to have a syntocinon drip during the third phase of labour to encourage the placenta to be pushed out. It's usually effective but 9f course cannot be 100% guaranteed to work.

Thats very different from the advice I was given. It is slightly more likely to happen again if it happened before but a syntocin drip was never mentioned (and I spoke to several consultants in 2 subsequent pregnancies).

I had a retained placenta with my first and required manual removal in theatre. It was likely caused by syntocin overdrive during labour (drip).

With my 2nd and 3rd babies I just had the managed third stage (the injection as you give birth) and had no problems (although with my 2nd the after birth was more painful than the birth itself).

@Muststopeating You're right, it can also be given as an injection. Often there's already a drip in place for a higher-risk delivery so it can just be given in that. It can also be known as Pitocin or (synthetic) Oxytocin and acts as the mother's natural oxytocin should during the third stage, which is why putting the baby to the breast is often tried to encourage a sluggish placenta delivery.

I also had a retained placenta attributed to uterine atony from an augmented labour. I then had an augmented labour again with my second delivery too but the drug-assisted third stage fortunately resulted in placenta delivery that time.

@Kinsters Hope your scan goes well tomorrow.

I had the syntocinon drip for pushing so wonder if that had anything to do with it. I had the injection for the third stage as well though so who knows.

Scan showed a normal placenta this time and posterior rather than anterior.

I had retained placenta with my first (not dual lobed) so did quite a lot of research on reducing risk of it happening again. There is research that natural third stage with immediate breastfeeding/skin to skin but no injection to speed the placenta has better outcomes so that is what I did with DC2 & DC3 and placenta came away in tact within about half an hour. I also had an epidural, and the stress of baby being whisked off to SCBU due to breathing issues which can both slightly raise likelihood of retained placenta.

I'll definitely discuss that with my Dr. Could really do without it happening again! The epidural I don't know...I'm planning on having one as soon as I arrive at the hospital, mostly because of the retained placenta last time. It was painful enough to remove even with the epidural and I'm sure it would have been so much worse without it.

I had a retained placenta with dd1 as the umbilical cord was short and snapped on delivery. Dd2 was fine, not retained and the cord was long, so all good.