Low platelets & breech baby. WORRIED...

[Beachmum85]

I'm 33wks pg w DC2, have anemia and a platelet count that I found out today has dropped from 139 to 117.

On top of this, my baby has decided to turn to breech and putting 2 x 2 together is a pretty terrifying thought as I'm assuming c-sections and low platelets don't go well together?

There goes my dream of a home birth.

Anybody have any experience with this? It's all new to me (dc1 was a walk in the park it turns out!!).

Also worried about underlying cause of blood problems... oh and have floaters in my eyes which is really disconcerting.

PS. Midwife aware of all of the above and trying to get me to see the haematologist ASAP.

Hi,

I'm 39 weeks and low platelets picked up at 28 week check. I've been hovering around the 100 mark since then and being checked fortnightly.

Yesterday I saw the hemo consultant himself (finally) who told me that 85 is the magic number - if you stay above that a csection/epidural etc is all fine (this was news to me as was not what I had been told previously!)

They will keep checking your blood so will be totally prepared, and will put a plan together for you closer to your due date.

Good luck!

P.S - you still have plenty of time for that baby to turn too! Go look at spinningbabies.com

It'll be down to the dilutional effect on your blood counts in pregnancy - most women will see a similar pattern. As PP said the magic number for your platelets to go to is quite a bit lower before they think about replacing cells before big procedures but will have a protocol for this if required. It's almost certainly not going to

Thanks both!

80 the 'magic' number here in terms of epidural / spinal. We don't actually start to get even mildly anxious until they are below 40-50 though!
Baby still has time to turn and so don't panic too soon! At 117, we would just test monthly and not even see you in clinic here :)

But what on earth is causing it? Just being preggo? Never happened with DC1, I wasn't even anemic

I was told it just happens sometimes.

My age (although I'm only 33), having a 20 month old and still breast feeding her occasionally have all been mentioned as factors. What's your gap between one and two?

I had low platelets/suspected HELLP syndrome and I still had a Caesarean after a failed induction. I had a general anaesthetic and they had platelets on standby for a transfusion (although they weren't needed). You sound a long way off that though and hopefully yours won't drop much further - but if they do, a breech baby can still be got safely out

I'm 31, DD is 3.3yo and I am 33.4wks pg.

I mean I am knackered! But that's motherhood and being pg right?!

Midwife said anemia is unrelated, but I can't help but feel it can't be totally unrelated...? she also said a virus can cause platelets to drop so maybe I'm just fighting some sort of preschool-induced virus I don't even know about. I have had a couple of mouth ulcers and scratchy throat/ etc the past few weeks.

your circulating blood volume increases by 25% in pregnancy - 25% more blood products for you body to make. Its just an increased demand rather than a true deficiency. Your platelets will be diluted to a certain extent

As this happens in early pregnancy it all shakes out by the 28 week bloods and the true effect can be seen on your counts. It shouldn't change from here unless something else were to happen such as hellp or bleeding - both of which would have symptoms.