placenta praevia? sorry if spelt wrong! Who has had it?

[lunavix]

Been to doctors for umpteenth time about bleeding (19 weeks today) and he seems to think this is the likely cause of it. I have a scan booked weds so this will point out whether it's this or not, although he did say he was hoping it was this as otherwise he hasn't got a clue what's up.

He told me that if this is the case, sex and heavy lifting are out, regular scans are in to monitor growth of baby, and a casearean will be pretty much compulsory (which I really don't want!)

Can anyone tell me more? I want the negative stuff too...

I had this - well almost - my placenta was very low lying
I had scans every week from 35 weeks and was booked in for C-section but thankfully my consultant scanned me one more time at 39 weeks 2 days & mine had moved out the way enough to have a vaginal birth

if yours is def Praevia, I think it may not move and a C-section is the only option
It means the placenta is blocking the exit and if you tried to give birth, it may rupture the placenta or it come away - therefore risk to baby AND you

thats all I know really

pretty frustrating as nothing you can do about it

good luck when you have the scan

I had this too. Mine didn't move, bled at 34 weeks, had a cs, ds & I went home after 2 weeks.

At 19 weeks you still have a good chance that it will move (well, that as your womb grows the placenta will no longer be covering the cervix). Ask them if they can see where it is attached - if it is bang splat on top of the cervix there is less chance it will move.

\link{http://www.rcog.org.uk/index.asp?PageID=527\RCOG info on placenta praevia}

fruitful did you have the cs at 34 weeks?

I know it's still early days and that it may move but I want to be prepared!

Like MM I had a low-lying placenta (or low-flying as we nicknamed it ). This was picked up at the 20 week scan. All they did was book me in for an extra scan at around 35 weeks to see if it had moved or not. Luckily it had moved otherwise I would have had to have had a CS.

I did however have a bleed at 23 weeks (quite a substantial bleed but not sustained) -the cause of this was never pinpointed but the low-lying placenta didn't seem to cause them alarm or concern and they never considered it a cause.

As well as this one-off bleed I also had some spotting throughout my pregnancy caused by cervical erosion.

Hi lunavix

I had this with dd1. I bled at 27 weeks. Had had not inkling that anything was wrong at that time, as my hospital had a policy of not looking at (or, at least, not mentioning) the position of the placenta at the 20-week scan. I was hospitalised at 27 weeks and kept in for a week or so, as I kept bleeding on and off (it wasn't constant though ... more sort of odd lumpy bits... very very sorry if TMI). I was sent home after a week when things seemed to have stabilised, but I bled again that same night, so that was it - I was back in hospital for the duration then. DD1 was born by elective c-section at 36 weeks. She was small (even for a 36-weeker) at 4lb 12oz; I think because I'd lost bits of placenta along the way (the lumpy bits) so she was a bit undernourished. Nonetheless, she was otherwise fine. I'd had steroids weekly since my first bleed and she breathed absolutely fine on her own from birth. She had to be fed by NGT for about 10 days and I did have to leave her in hospital for about a week, which was absolutely the worst part of the whole thing. (I had to be discharged after a week, she was kept in until she could feed independently.) She had problems breast-feeding (though I was determined to do it) and I only managed to get her home feeding with nipple shields. Unfortunately, she wasn't gaining weight feeding like that, and after her 6-week check I changed to formula (reluctantly - but was more worried about her weight by that stage, as she was still under 6lb).

At 19 weeks there is plenty of scope for your placenta to move out of the way and for you to have a natural delivery. The placenta doesn't actually 'move' as such. The way it was explained to me was like if you stick a plaster on the side of a delated balloon. As you blow the balloon up, the plaster will seem to move up the side of the balloon, but really it'll be stuck on in the same place all along - it's just the balloon stretching. Your uterus is the balloon and the placenta is the plaster. As your uterus stretches, the placenta may well be lifted out of the way of the cervix and you'll be OK.

Placenta praevia is graded on a scale of 1-4. Grade 4 means that the placenta is completely covering the os (mouth of womb). This is what I had (they said my placenta was sunk in the cervix like a plug in a sink!) and it's the most serious as the most likely to lead to bleeding and also the least likely to move.

Definitely take the doctor's advice to avoid sex and lifting, and if it's shown that you do have placenta praevia then please do take it seriously. There is every chance that everything will be fine, and I really don't want to be alarmist, but if you do bleed again, and you know that you have pp then always go and get it checked out. It is very very unlikely, but if the placenta does become detached and you haemorrhage you don't have very long to get the baby out of there safely. This is why they wouldn't let me go home from hospital, even though I only lived 5 mins drive away. At the start I was desperate to discharge myself, but they wouldn't hear of it and they basically told my dh that I could bleed to death between my home and the hospital. However, this was after they had realised that my placenta was basically hanging by a thread. In most people's cases I don't think they are this alarmist about it.

When you go in, and if you do have pp, I'd be asking whether they think you should have steroids in case your baby has to be born early. They may say that this is unnecessary if your bleeding settles down and the pp is not too serious, but it's worth asking.

You should also ask whether they want to take blood from you to cross-match and save, just in case you do have a major bleed. Again, they may think that this is OTT. It may be something they only do in extreme cases. I had blood taken twice a week, just in case.

Like you, I didn't want a c-section, but if you do have total pp then there really is no other way. I can reassure you that an elective section is a really positive experience. Very calm, very relaxed and very joyful.

I hope that I haven't scared you. I wasn't sure how much to post here, but I've posted the same info elsewhere, so you'd have found it if you'd done a search... Please don't worry. I was told that I was VERY unlucky and that cases like mine are extremely rare. I hope that everything goes well at your scan and that you get some answers about the bleeding which are not too worrying. Loads of people have pp/low-lying placentas and some bleeding, but go on to have totally unproblematic deliveries. (I was one, with dd2... placenta was low-ish at 20 weeks and I had one very very small bleed, which freaked me out a bit as you can imagine, but the placenta 'moved' and I had a VBAC when I went into labour naturally at 37 weeks.)

I had incomplete placenta praevia on ds3. I was bleeding from 24 weeks onwards on and off. I also had spotting up to 14 weeks, was told that this was unrelated but I do wonder if the pregnancy had implanted low in the first place. Eventually I had a massive bleed at 32 weeks and rushed in to hospital. It stopped, then happened again twice. The third time, approx 24 hours after I had been admitted, my consultant told me they had been as conservative as they could but now an emergency CS was absolutely necessary. I live in Ireland and had recently watched a seried called Unit 8 about the NICBU in The National Maternity Hospital which was my hospital. One of the nurses said "We've informed Unit 8" and it hit me that I was going to have one of those tiny little delicate babies. I was petrified. I had a GA and when I woke up was informed that I had a little boy, 5lb3oz (not bad!) who had cried at birth! I expressed milk from the start and insisted on trying to bf. He knew what to do and I fed him as much as I could though the SCBU stall insisted on top-up bottles. I took him home after 15 days and bf him. I stopped the top-ups of EBM after it became clear that he was definitely getting enough from me. He's now over a year old and has loads of personality and definitely knows his own mind! Hope I haven't said anything too scary! I think, with good medical care the outcome is far better for most people than it would have been years ago.

Thanks Ellbell, that was really informative :)

I know chances of it being low, and staying low are quite slim, but I just want to know what I'm up against. As with my first pregnancy, doctors seem to be withholding information I'd see as valuable ("the reason you keep fainting and falling over is because you have severely low blood pressure" is an example of something I'd have been reassured at if I'd just known!) so I want to know what questions to ask.

On the other hand, if the bleeding isn't this, I'm joining the doctor in being worried as to what is causing the bleeding (again sorry if tmi anyone, but mine is definately lumpy too) so I suppose it's six of one...

Thanks everyone. Only three days till I have a clue!

Lunavix - yes I had the cs at 34 weeks. They thought they wouldn't have to - they said they were just observing me till it all settled down, and then they'd move me onto the antenatal ward (didn't want to let me go home). But then I went into labour (at 4pm, bleed started at 2am). Ds was tube-fed expressed milk for a week and then started bf'ing.

But I didn't have any bleeding at all until that one at 34 weeks.

Hang in there - waiting is awful, isn't it?

Chipmonkey, 5lb 3oz at 32 weeks is very good and well done with the bf. I wanted to add to my post that I now think (5 years on!) that dd1's problems with feeding were only partly due to her being early/small. I have quite flat nipples and both my dds found it quite hard to latch on. Dd2 was big and strong and hungry enough to cope, but dd1 was just too small and sleepy to be bothered, I think. So, although I had problems, this doesn't mean that another person would have done in the same circs.

Lunavix, glad I didn't freak you out (had to come back to this thread to check!). Let us know what happens with the scan next week. Thinking about you and sending you lots of love.

I've had it with both my dds, even though it's sposed to be rare. I had pp grade 4 but, unusually, no bleeding so i know i was very lucky.

please DO take it seriously, esp as you've already had some bleeding. Don't get yourself worked up about a c-section: if it is pp you will HAVE to have a c-s so there's no point trying to fight it. Both my c-sections were very positive experiences, esp the first (the 2nd took me longer to recover from) and both girls very healthy. I had both babies at 37.5 weeks.
If at the scan they see that your placenta hasn't moved you may well find yourself being told you need to go into the hospital for the rest of the pregnancy. This is not ideal, i know, but again, not worth the hassle of fighting it. The first time it happened i cried myself silly about being away from home and made life very miserable for myself. the second time i resigned myself to the fact and it wasn't so bad after all, and that was even with leaving dd1 at home!

let us know how you get on. good luck x

hey im in exaclty the same boat i got told this yestaerday its worrying aint it?

Scary as hell, aprilgirl! How many weeks pg are you!

Just wanted to say good luck for your scan, lunavix. Hope it all goes well. Thinking of you today.

Lunavix, let us know how your scan goes. Thinking of you today.

A friend and I are due 2 days apart in August and were both told at our 20 week scans that we have low-lying placentas and are booked in for an extra scan at 34 weeks to check if it has shifted up or whether it might be a better idea to book an elective CS.

I am very keen on as natural and non-medical a birth as possible, so am just trying to keep calm and focus on the very strong likelihood that this will resolve itself and not turn into placenta praevia.

I agree it is a bit of a worry, but at this stage it's way too early to say what will happen. My sonographer told me one in 15 women has LLP at 20 weeks, and only 1% go on to have a CS, so the odds are good. Good to hear some honest accounts of what might happen if things don't go smoothly, though.

Pinchy xx