Retained Placenta

[NKd1167739100921]

I had a retained placenta which only came to light 4 weeks after giving birth when I started bleeding profusely. I was in hospital for 4 days and spent a week recovering due to infection. Since the procedure I've been scanned and there's still something left behind so need another op with a camera this time but dreading it as the last experience left me in more pain etc than childbirth itself! Has anyone else had this happen and decided to see if it would resolve naturally without medical intervention? On the one hand I want to get it over and done with but I'm also afraid of going back into hospital and having another general and possible infection.

I had a retained placenta after my DD's birth but had it all removed manually in theatre.

Have they said you can't leave it to expel naturally?

I can wait to see if it will happen naturally but so far nothing and it's 4 months since I gave birth and they said by leaving it I run the risk of infection at any time so it will need to be removed if it doesn't come away naturally.

Hi NKd1167739100921 I had retained placenta, but like 3Nab had a manual removal in theatre a couple hours after the birth of ds1. I completely understand your fear and remember while they were doing the procedure I begged them if this could be done without intervention. They said no. I had to accept their answer as I had just given birth and hadn't even heard of retained placenta.

All I can say is while you have a bit more time, go to The Lancet online and you may find recent research papers published there. I'm not sure what the access is now, but a few years ago I didn't have to pay and found very useful research on retained placenta. Think it was called the 'hinchingbrooke report'

Here:hinchingbrooke
Not sure if all the info is here, you may get more detail via the Lancet or more recent research

Hope it helps x

sorry to hear this nkd, I had mine removed in theatre after normal drug free labour as well so no advice for you but sending some hugs as I am still feeling traumatised a year later by the whole thing.

Hi Marmitemad - I was traumatised too, so much so I was terrified of getting pregnant and the same thing happening again.

The statistics from the Hinchingbrooke report enabled me to argue the case for a c-section for my next two children.

barking - thanks for the hinchingbrooke thing, never heard of it before but have now saved it on my favourites for reference if I decide to have another dc, at the time no-one could tell me if it was likely to happen again or how to prevent it happening, I suppose C-section is the only guarantee available.

Marmitehead - Yep all the health professionals were very vague also or very dismissive. I wanted answers and statistics. Only people who have gone through this understand. Not sure if it was the Hinchingbrooke, but I read or was told it was 50%.

Message withdrawn

Barking - thanks for the link. With DD1 I didn't have retained placenta, only this time. I had pain after giving birth and kept asking for weeks if it was my placenta but they said no- until I had to call an ambulance home. If they had known when I'd given birth they would have sent me to theatre to have it removed but thought it had come away. Orinoco - I'm doing mixed feeding as my milk supply is not what it was with DD1 though the obstetrician says the retained placenta won't affect my milk (however, the breastfeeding advisor says it does!).
I'm not too traumatised by what happened but my DD1 was and it wasn't great for me to be separated for 4 days from my 4 week old baby and then wasn't able to pick her up for several days at home due to the pain and infection that set in post op. I'm just worried about going in again and having to go through it all again, when I gave birth in November!

I think I had an undiagnosed retained placenta after my first dd. they pulled out the placenta and said it was 'ragged' it was indeed a mess but then they did nothing about it. For weeks after in the bath i'd pass what looked like pieces of chopped liver which I assume was bits of my placenta. Luckily I didn't get infected or bleed too much. Does this sound like a retained placenta to you? I'm just wondering because I had a m/c 9 months after dd was born and wonder if this could have had anything to do with it? Sorry to gatecrash.

nkd-you HAVE to think of a new name. trust me.

ledodgy i had exactly the same as you, DS2 was born 8 weeks ago and i got told my membranes were "ragged" and to keep an eye out for any bloodloss, well about 3 weeks ago i started bleeding very lightly and thought it might be a light period (i'm BF btw) but it lasted for 2 weeks i ended up with anti-b for a week as a precautionary measure. It worked, no more bloodloss or mild abdominal pain