20 Weeks. Low lying placenta, but not near the birth canal. How high a risk?

[scenegreenbean]

Hi guys,

I had my 20 week scan yesterday and was told I have a low lying placenta but that it is not near the 'birthing area'. The sonographer didn't seem concerned about it and she said it shouldn't cause any issues later on as the placenta is not in the way of anything.

She said baby was doing just fine and there were no other complications. Everything else seems to be okay.

It might be my own stupid fault for Googling it, but all the results are saying that a low lying placenta is quite dangerous and may require a C-Section at birth an may cause me to bleed heavily in late pregnancy, so now I'm quite concerned.

This is my first pregnancy so maybe I'm just being paranoid, but should I be so concerned about this when the sonographer was not?

Thanks!

As the uterus grows, the placenta tends to move away from the cervix. Imagine you've drawn a dot on a balloon. As you blow up the balloon, that dot will become further away from the opening of the balloon.

Problems occur mostly when the opening of the cervix is covered, which requires a c section.

If the sonographer didn't seem concerned, I wouldn't be. Did she mention a scan in the third trimester to see where the placenta has moved to (I've not heard of it moving closer to the cervix, just away as the uterus grows).

At 20 weeks it isn’t really considered serious for the placenta to be low lying unless you have other complications too. The fact that you had to google it, suggests the experts aren’t concerned either. They’ll just keep an eye on it at every scan.

Very common at this stage, it usually moves. I had an additional scan to check it had moved. None of the doctors were worried. Good luck with your pregnancy