Has anyone heard of placenta accreta?

[jabberwocky]

My brother, who is a physician, just informed me about the daughter of a colleague. She went in for her 3rd delivery, a c-section, had placenta accreta and amniotic fluid embolism and is now in critical condition in the intensive care unit. I had never heard of this and have only been able to find minimal information on the internet search engines.

It does look as if I have some of the risk factors however,

AMA - advanced maternal age
previous c-section

it is rare - - it is nothing anyone i know has had or come across in real life.....not to say it doesn;'t happen....but you might have two of the risk factors..not to say you will have this condition....

just found a bit of info in an old midwifery text book ( am not a midwife - am trianing as a doula, en ex midwfe friend lent it to me!)

placenta accreta.very rarely, the placenta remains morbidly adherent..if it is totally adherent then bleeding is unlikely to occur and it may be left i situ to absorb during the puerurium.If hwoever only part of the placenta remains embedded , the risks of haemmorhage are high......

so a rare event...i think it's a bit mean of your brother to tell you such a scary story when you are expecting yourself.......!

i really would try to put it out of your mind..concentrate on enjoying your pregnancy.....lots of things acan go wrong...but often don't....if your consultant thinks that you might have predisposing factors ...i'm sure they will keep a careful eye on you

Placenta accreta is a pretty rare condition that occurs when the placenta embeds too deeply into the myometrium of the uterus and cannot detach by the usual means during the 3rd stage of labour. I think it's more likely in a woman with previous c-section because of the scar tissue - if the placenta embeds here it can be harder to dislodge. It's usually removed manually and I think that's probably the cause of the embolism (which is very rare, afaik).

I have heard of the placenta being left in situ to reabsorb if it's deeply adherent, to avoid complications such as shock or embolism, but I guess that would depend on other factors.

HTH - and don't forget these are rare complications.

And, yes, I agree it's not exactly fair play of your brother to tell you stories like that - is he trying to scare you?

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6066204.stm

Cut and paste this link about amniotic fluid embolism on the BBC website.

here

jabberwocky- i had a previous c.s and in my VBAC..placenta came away beautifully and intact.....! had a good look at it too!

Jabberwocky - I hope I haven't worried you more by putting that link in. I know you're booked in for a second C section. So I'll try and reassure you: my DH has two cousens who both have had four c Sections with no problems whatsoever. If you ask any doctor they'll always give you the horror stories bacause it's the horror stories they remember, the normal csections they forget about.

Thanks everyone. I did think maybe he wasn't really thinking through how scary that would be to me. I got the impression he wants me to have a late ultrasound to check placenta position, which, while probaby overkill, couldn't hurt.

Even though I'm 41 and he's 53, he still fusses over me like when we were kids

it's nice that he cares...even if he scared you...a scan can;t hurt i suppose...!