Seeing as lulumama is lurking...! MW told me on Friday that if my placenta doesn't move, they will admit me to hospital at 37 weeks to do a CS at 39 weeks - [hmm]

[MamaG]

Can I refuse?

Its ridiculous to think I might have to spend 2 weeks in bloody hospital. I've got two children at home FGS, one of which will JUST have started school. I will NOT leave them for 2 bloody weeks

She said becuase we're so rural they won't want to risk me going into labour as it will take an hour to get to the hospital.

[Ellbell]

Oh good, MamaG. I am a 'knowledge is power' type of a gal too.

[MamaG]

Thanks fruitful

meghalegs - I misread taht as "crosspot of the week" and thought how rude!

[fruitful]

If you like all the info, there's a more in-depth version of that info on the same site.

[fruitful]

rcog info on placenta praevia

I remember thinking the same as you with ds1 - dd would be 2y10 and I was not going into hospital for 2 weeks! Plus I had a homebirth planned. I was very pissed off with them (the docs).

Then I had a huge sudden bleed at 34 weeks, ambulance to hospital, emergency cs, stayed in for 2 weeks afterwards. I spent the 2nd week fighting to be allowed to stay in so that I could get ds1 bfing, and come home at the same time as him. Dd coped fine.

With ds2 I had the huge bleed at 23 weeks and just stayed in hospital for ever. When I haemorrhaged again at 33 weeks it took them a couple of minutes to get me to the operating table - you really do need to be in the hospital.

Sorry to be dramatic, but its still a recent experience for me, and I'm so glad I was in the hospital. In spite of the soup .

If it happens, your dp will have to cope, and you get to put your feet up at the end of pg. Its not all bad...

[MehgaLegs]

I think we need a crosspost of the week award for this thread.

Hope you are feeling reassured MamaG.

[MamaG]

Ellbell I'm one of those annoying people whow like to know everything thats going on, its when I don't know full facts that I freak out!

I'm terrible at the dentist. The poor man has to say "now I'm going to us this t hing here to do this"

bzzzzz

"no I'm just going to X"

etc

[Ellbell]

Glad you came back MamaG. I thought I'd completely freaked you out.

I am sending placenta-raising vibes in your general direction.

(bero's story is reassuring, but don't do what bero did and go to hospital in labour on the bus, eh? I think you're poss a bit far from the hospital for that )

Good luck to you too expat. My hospital had a policy of not saying where the placenta was at 20 weeks so as not to worry people unnecessarily (this was obviously not in a rural/isolated area). All well and good, but with dd2 - after the dd1 experience - I was worried. I had to insist that I wasn't getting off the scan table till they told me!

[expatinscotland]

yeah, so i have to go and make that two hours each way journey last week in august.

if you have any bleeds from it, however, they make you stay in hospital. till the end.

[MamaG]

expat

good to know bero! thanks

[berolina]

oh and I was told it almost certainly wouldn't, as it had progressed from being partially to totally covering and I had had two big bleeds.

[berolina]

I had a grade 4 at 21 weeks. It moved.

[expatinscotland]

i don't know because the gal didn't make ANY comment about my placenta at all and i didn't think to ask - too busy being shocked it was a boy.

then the midwife noticed there was nothing on the notes at my checkup and, being as rural as we are, that didn't sit well with her.

[MamaG]

oh are you in teh same boat as me then expat?

I will be rescanned at 32 weeks, 4th September (ffs)

[expatinscotland]

that's the policy here, too. the CLU is too far in a situation like this serious. they'd admit at 37 weeks as well and you'd have to wait round till either your csection date or you went into labour.

the scanner at my 20 weeks scan didn't write on the notes where my placenta is, so i have to go back next month for another scan because of the distance from hospital.

grrr.

[MamaG]

Thanks for htat very helpful post Ellbell. If they tell me I have to be admitted, I'll go in but I will keep my fingers crossed for the placenta moving

Klaw - yes we've been there, its nice! Worth a visit, we could have a drink and a cake

[Ellbell]

squonk... ambulance couldn't do anything - has to be a c-section, sadly.

[Ellbell]

MamaG... Please try not to worry. If they are saying that the placenta is touching the os ('os' is Latin for 'mouth' and it's the medical term for the opening of the cervix ... at the uterus end rather than at the vagina end, iyswim) rather than covering it at 24 weeks, then there is every chance that it will move before your next scan.

The placenta doesn't actually 'move'- it stays attached in the same place, but your uterus expands and so the position of the placenta relative to the os changes. The best way this was explained to me was to think about sticking a piece of sellotape onto a balloon near to the opening. As you blow up the balloon (= as your uterus expands) the sellotape (= placenta) appears to move further away from the opening. It's only if the sellotape was stuck actually over the opening that its position wouldn't change as the balloon was blown up.

If you are worried (which you obviously are... sorry, that was a stupid thing to say), you could ask at your next appointment (or even just phone the hospital and ask) what grade of placenta praevia you have. As lulumama has explained, grades 1 and 2 are almost certain to be OK and even grade 3 is often OK in the end.

You could also ask if you could be re-scanned at 34 weeks rather than 32 to give your placenta maximum time to get its act together. My placenta was just touching the os at 20 weeks with dd2 but I was scanned again at 34 weeks and it was fine and I had a wonderful VBAC.

Having said all that (and I really don't want to freak you out now, but it's best to have the facts), if your placenta hasn't moved by 34 weeks or thereabouts and given that you are an hour away from the hospital, my experience suggests that you probably would be safer in hospital. My experience was quite extreme (grade 4 placenta praevia -with a placenta described as 'hanging by a thread' - and bleeding from 27 weeks onwards), but my hospital wouldn't let me go home (from 27 weeks till dd was delivered at 36 weeks!) even though I only lived 10 minutes from the hospital. They said that, if my placenta did 'go' (including if I had gone into labour spontaneously - which is what they'd be worried about in your case from 37 weeks onwards) I would have had to have had my baby within 10 minutes (c-section under general anaesthetic) in order to save both my life and the baby's. An hour - even in an ambulance with blues and twos and everything going - would be way too long. It is very very rare, but if it does happen it's very serious indeed.

Likewise, if you do have any bleeding at all, do go and get it checked out asap, just in case.

The two weeks in hospital would be a PITA, but if you think that they could save your life they are worth it. (This is how I think of the three months I 'lost' during my pregnancy with dd1!) Knowing now that this might happen, gives you time to line up someone to come and stay and be with your other children if necessary and so on and so forth (even though it'll probably be unnecessary).

Having said that (and please don't think I'm trying to scare you), I think it's extremely likely that everything will be fine and that your next scan will give you the all-clear. Sorry this is so long. (Subject close to my heart!) Good luck!

[Klaw]

not mysterious, here, did you get last time?

[MamaG]

Yay Klaw I think mine may have, so I'll text you now.

Sounds mysterious, the place you want to go to! I'm a bit of a last minute person, so I'm likely to ring you and say "what are you doing tomorrow"


I keep chuckling about the placenta being in Lancaster too!

[Klaw]

ps my mobile hasn't changed

[Klaw]

Excellent! Go on about the baby as much as you want!

There's a place I've never been to, but want to go to, that I think we should go to

[MamaG]

Yay thanks Klaw

I'm coming up your way again for 2 weeks on Sunday 3rd August - I'll text you to check we have each other's correct mobile numbers and we'll try to meet up for a gossip and a coffee? I promise not to go on and on about hte baby

[Klaw]

MamaG, placenta touching at 24weeks gives me confidence that your uterus will have grown sufficiently to take the placenta far enough away from the OS by the time birth comes. It's not as if it's covering the OS atm...

Mine was low at 20wks and was 6cm away by 36wks and I went on to labour at 42+1.

research? here

Do get any bleeds checked out tout de suite but do not worry, enjoy your pg and hopefully the little bugger placenta will have moved by next scan

[MamaG]

Squonk nobody is as ignorant as me about all this! I will do my homework and pray the blardy thing moves

thanks all