Confused about placenta position

[Sakura92]

Hello, I've just got back from my 25 week midwife appointment and I'm slightly confused about a comment she made about the positioning of my placenta and wondered if anyone could help me understand.

At my 20 week scan, I was told I had a posterior plecenta. I've just been to see the midwife today and while she was listening for the heartbeat, she said "Oh, your plecenta is all up front" and said it was making it hard to hear the heartbeat clearly.

I was under the impression that having a posterior placenta meant it was all at the back. Am I mistaken? Thank you :)

[crazychemist]

Posterior placenta is at the back. Not sure what your midwife meant! Presumably they were just having difficult finding the heartbeat (happens! Babies aren’t always in a good position) and she made an assumption?

(I’ve got an anterior placenta. If you had one, you would have found out at your 12 week scan and it would have been confirmed at your anomaly scan)

[Sakura92]

Thanks for your response :) I'm not sure if she was mistaken or not but she told me the sound I was hearing at first was the placenta before she found the baby heartbeat. I'm not sure if it would be normal to hear the placenta if it was at the back?

I'm probably over thinking it but it's got me a bit worried there might be something weird going on with my plecenta so I've booked a private scan to make sure it's all ok 😅

[Araz208]

I didnt know i had an anterior placenta until my 20 weeks scan, and only then because i asked - the sonographer said not to worry too much about where it is because it can move? To be honest i didn’t question it but i wonder if yours has moved too? The sonographer said they only worry if its low down and mine was high up so it shouldn’t make any difference- i didnt feel her move properly until 24 weeks so this explained why!

[Jellybean100]

You can pick up some placental sounds and also hear whooshing from the umbilical cords blood flow. I wouldn’t worry, your somographer has seen the placenta on scan and confirmed it’s posterior so I think your midwife just made a (not v helpful) throwaway comment