low-lying placenta at 19 weeks

[cath29]

does anyone else have experience of this?? was told at my 19 week scan that my placenta is low and they need to re-scan at 34 weeks. please do post if you've any experience or advice.

I was told this when pregnant with dd2 but when i went for the 34 week scan it had moved.I was told that in most cases as the 'bump' grows it moves the placenta up.

try not to worry - low lying placenta at this stage is very very common. The vast majority of placentas have moved up into the right place by the time you get to your 34 week scan so try to put it to the back of your mind. If howeverm you have any bleeding, spotting or similar, get in touch with your midwife straight away. 90-odd% of cases of placenta praevia (where the placenta doesn't move throughout the pregnancy) have bleeding as a symptom.

I'm sure you'll be fine. If you did a survey on mumsnet right now of the cases of low-lying placenta at 20 weeks versus full-blown placenta praevia, it would be 1000s to 1. I did have placenta praevia myself but i know only a handful of other mumsnetter that did as well (and no-one else in real life apart from 1 other woman i met in hospital!)

I had to have a re-scan for this & it was fine at 34 weeks

I've had this a few of times. Each time it has moved out of the way by 28wks+. As your uterus grows it is pulled up. Try not too worry too much. It's quite common.

thanks everyone for your comments; moomin that is good to know about the statistics! sorry you had trouble; placenta praevia doesn't sound too good.. i guess my main worry is that if they don't rescan till 34 weeks, how do you know at 32 weeks, say, to avoid lifting anything etc.. and to take the precautions they recommend? i'm on my own with dd age 3 and this pregnancy, and we are moving house at after xmas time (i'll be about 28 - 30 weeks when we move). what happened with the placenta praevia if you don't mind me asking? (feel free to say it's none of my business )

anyone else got experience of this?

From what I was told at the hospital, as I said before, the majority of cases of placenta praevia present with bleeding of some description. It's not an ideal situation having to wait until then but you should just assume that everything's ok unless you get some symptoms.

Before I tell you what happened with me, I must say that my case was VERY VERY rare - in that I had a grade 4 pp (the most severe you can get, where the placenta completely covers the opening of the womb) with both my pregnancies, if you can believe it, but with NO bleeding whatsoever at any point. So it was the scan at 34 weeks both times that confirmed it and I had no other symptoms. Once we knew it was there I had to take the precaution of hospital stays and bed rests and of course elective c-sections, but I have to say I felt fit as a fiddle and didn't even have so much as one drop of spotting. But as I said, that is very rare - I think I must have a womb shaped like a banana or something to have gotten it twice! I think there are maybe 2 or 3 other mumsnetters that i've come across with pp and they had bleeding on and off throughout their pregnancies. I'm just a weirdo so ignore my case! (but you did ask!)

I bet you come back on here in 14 weeks' time and tell us everything is fine - the odds are massively in your favour.

... and I should add that ignorance was bliss and I worked full time with dd1, moved house at 24 weeks, went on holiday with both pregnancies (in this country though) and was fine. Just keep an eye out for bleeding. and anyway you shouldn't be doing any heavy lifting when you move house, low-lying placenta or not (so make sure you tell your dh/dp that)!

moomin thanx for your post yes i did ask!! so sorry you had that happen twice.. sounds like you emerged relatively unscathed and with sense of humour still intact though!

i'm the worrying type but will try my very hardest to take your advice.

the odds definitely are in my favour you're right.

though one thing that worries me is that i read that placenta praevia is linked to past d&cs (ive had 2) and caesareans (ive had one)

arrrghhhhhh! i said i'd stop! see?

awwww moomin the dh/dp is a touchy subject, you weren't to know but he is currently awol somewhere in the world having had some kind of breakdown, left me pg and with dd (nearly 4). so it looks like i'll be hiring movers and enlisting family support that's partly why i'm such a nervous wreck right now, if he was here to do the move, i'd be much, much more relaxed.

I had this and was rescaned at 32 weeks, and it hadn't moved so was rescaned again at 36 weeks. And this time it had moved!

So even if by your next scan it hasn't moved, it will still probably be ok.

sorry to hear about your dp - no wonder you're worrying at the moment .

I can only re-iterate what I said before - it's very rare. and even if the worst comes to the worst (as in it is pp) you'll get through it...if I can anyone can. I was such a baby when I was admitted to hospital the 1st time I found out weeks later that the staff and other patients used to call me 'Tantrums and Tiaras' cos I cried so much and wouldn't talk to anyone!!!! I accepted it eventually and made some very good mates in the end, we were like the inmates on Prisoner C Block H after 6 weeks in!

but i very much doubt it will come to that for you. You just concentrate on looking after yourself and thinking good positive thoughts. This really isn't worth your energy - you sound like you've got enough on your plate already. all the very very best xxx

thanks moomin, i'll keep you posted

and at tantrums and tiarras

thanks panicpants, i was thinking about asking them to scan a bit earlier actually, why do they leave it to 34 weeks does anyone know?

because it can move right up to the end! i had it too it was fine though i had a few bleeds and had to stay in hospital. honestly though most of them do move.

I'm another one who had this show up on their 20 wk scan but it had moved up by the later scan (around 36wks I think).
Try not to worry too much (easier said than done, i know )

thanks betty and astra it's a good excuse to try and do a bit less anyway (if i can lol)

cath29... I'm sorry to hear that you've got this added worry on top of everything else.

I am another one of the handful of MNers who had full-blown placenta praevia.

However please try not to worry for now. At your stage of pg this is incredibly common. It is so common that at my hospital they didn't even flag it up to women at the 20-week scan because there was so low a chance of it turning into a problem. The best way that this was described to me is to imagine your placenta like a sticking plaster stuck onto the outside of a balloon (near the hole). The balloon is your uterus and the hole is... well, you can guess. Anyway, when the balloon is deflated, the plaster is near or even partly over the hole, but as you inflate the balloon (as your uterus grows)the balloon stretches and the plaster appears to move away from the hole. This is why so many placentas appear low when the uterus is 'deflated', but as it expands they move right out of the way.

As I said, I did have pp with my first pregnancy. When I was scanned with dd2 I refused to move off the scan table till they told me where my placenta was! It turned out it was low again, but not covering the cervix, and sure enough by 34 weeks it had moved. I didn't particularly take it easy with dd2 (was hard with dd1, who was under 2 when dd2 was born) and I worked right up until a week before the birth. However, I was aware of the situation and that made me feel safer.

Please try not to worry. This is extremely common and there is every chance that you'll have a totally 'normal' pregnancy and birth.

Just bear one thing in mind... If you do have any bleeding - however slight - go straight to the hospital. Don't hesitate - take your dd with you if necessary. It is very rare for the placenta to come away completely, but if it does it is serious (for obvious reasons), so don't feel you are making a fuss or anything, just go straight in. (Bleeding is more likely to happen from 28 weeks onwards, apparently.)

I'm not sure about the D&C/caesarean thing. (Someone else will know if it's true.) I had a D&C before I had dd1, but by the time I had dd2 I'd had a D&C AND a caesarean, and that time the placenta moved and I had a natural delivery.

If your placenta doesn't move (and I'm willing to bet that it will) you will need to plan for an elective section. I'm not sure if Moomin's case is typical and they keep you in hospital from 34 weeks as a precaution in all cases. (I was one of the few who did bleed - quite heavily - from about 27 weeks on. But I promise you that it is very very rare... in the hospital they told me that they get less than a case a year like mine.... So nice to be a medical anomaly !)

Moomin... LOL at 'Tantrums and Tiaras'... you must be my alter ego.

And, cath29, I know I'm going to sound like a stuck record, but please don't worry. Go on as normal (yes, avoid heavy lifting and stuff, but try to be as normal as possible, within reason) and I'm sure that you'll be fine.

Ellbell thank you for your post it was really helpful, specially the imagery i can actually visualise my womb and my placenta now! lol. nobody at the hospital bothered to explain it at all! they just said 'it can move but it doesn't really move' which just left me more confused lol

thanks again

Really don't worry about it. It's not that common for it to be low in the first place and less common for it to stay low.
I was low at 20 wk scan and convinced it would stay that way. But at 36 wks scan everything had moved.

But yes keep an eye out for bleeding.

Good luck.

..I started bleeding heavily when pregnant with DS (now nearly 6 !) at 12 weeks and found out that I had a low lying placenta, very scary..though as mysteriously as it started, it stopped at 22 weeks. At that stage we found that the placenta had lifted as baby grew....We were hugely relieved...then I just carried on being sick !!

Hello, before I carry on Moomin I am trying to think of a new name at the moment as I realise this is very close to yours. (You'll be the reason I couldn't have it ) I'm on the May thread and some of the ladies got me muddled with you to start with, so a new name is on it's way. Moomin is my dd nick name. She is also called moomi, hence the moomimin.

I had my 12 week scan today, this is my third pg and the songrapher told me that the placenta is low and right across my cervix. I just wanted to say that having read this thread I feel alot better about it moving up as time goes on. Although I had no idea about the bleeding bit and would have panicked big time if I got any bleeding, but now it sounds fairly common.

Best of Luck to you Cath29, I hope it moves for you and you have no bleeding problems.

Hi cath29
I was also told this and mine moved too!
They left my scan til 36 weeks though even though I asked for it too be done earlier as i was fretting!
Most cases it moves out of the way though so try not to worry
Easier said than done though

Hello - just to add to the reassurance ... I had low lying placenta with ds - placenta moved up fine, & I was also told it was really really common ... although I also had bleeding throughout the pregnancy, which was unrelated/never very clearly diagnosed - so even if you DO get some bleeding, it still may not be bad news. If you think you're going to find it really worrying, try talking to your m/w about an earlier scan, though - they can only say no...

And I'm lovin' Elibeans balloon image - v.neat!

I had a low lying placenta by 34 weeks it had moved up. I was really worried about it before i had another scan at 34 weeks but all was fine!