I was thrilled to find out I was pregnant again and looking forward to another straight foward pregnancy, how wrong, at 16 weeks I was told that I had to have an amnio and I waited for the results for two weeks during this time I went for my 18 week scan and was told my placenta was low but not to worry. The results of the amnio were fine and I started to feel happy again about being pregnant. I had to have a check up scan at 24 weeks due to the amnio and it was then found that I had previa. I was told not to drive no sex not to go out alone or be alone at any time my blood had to be taken every week so that a supply could be in storage incase of a bleed and that I could actually die and lose the baby due to this. I have to say I felt numb. 

 

Luckly I went to 33 weeks and was admitted to hospital and was told that I was carrying a large baby, so everything should be fine, I had a slight bleed at 34 weeks in which my blood pressure and everything dropped, I was then delivered under general anasthesia at 35 weeks and have now got a healthy happy baby boy born at 9lbs. 

 

Since his birth I have been quite stressed about the situation and felt that I was the only one with this condition. I am thrilled to have found this site and look forward to keeping it up.

I just turned 37 years old and this is my first pregnancy . I had some brown spotting at 16 weeks but ultrasound showed normal heartbeat, the baby was moving, and everything looked good. At that point my doctor advised me it could be a low lying placenta, but she couldn't say for sure why I would havespotted, only that it was old blood to be brown. At 19 weeks I went to a genetic doctor for an amnio (due to my age) and while that turned out fine, they did discover that I had complete placenta previa. He said he'd inform my doctor but only thing he said to avoid was sex. As with everyone else here I searched books and internet for info on this condition, and learned that in most cases the placenta moves up. Well I was due to fly to Illinois (from California) for my nephew's high school graduation at 28 weeks along so my doctor did an ultrasound a few days before I was to leave to check the placenta. I was positive it must have moved because I had no bleeding whatsoever. I was taking it as easy as I could, but I'm a single mom (baby's father is in England..that's another story!!) and I had to continue working, not to mention the things around my home that had to be done. In any case the placenta had not moved one bit, and my doctor didn't think it would be a good idea for me to go so far away, that if I bleed it could cause contractions and did I really want to have my baby so far away from home? Also I was going to be in a very small town..that made me extremely nervous so as hard as it was - I cancelled my trip. Well I am now 35 weeks along and still have had no bleeding. I keep expecting it to happen at any time, hoping it won't but knowing it is probably inevitable from all I'd read. My doctor is scheduling a c-section at 38 1/2 weeks and I'm hoping all goes as it has been and I'll make it. I have to say that with all the reading I've done on this condition (which is A LOT!) I have discovered one thing for sure: there is absolutely NO consistency I've seen in any two cases in the many, many personal experiences I've read about. Some have bled all the way thru their pregnancy, some only once or twice, some not at all. Some have bled while on complete bed rest, some haven't been on bedrest and did not bleed. I did manage to get myself on disability from work a lot earlier then I would have with a normal pregnancy, so I think it does help not to be working since I stand a lot at my job and never know how many hours I'd end up working. But I haven't been on bedrest (knock on wood!) which would be very difficult for me being alone. The only thing I can say about my pregnancy that I feel is due to the placenta previa (and my doctor says isn't, I'm not convinced however!) is the insane amount of times I have to urinate and have always had to throughout my pregnancy. Of course I do drink a ton of water so I'm sure that's some of it, but I have also felt pressure down low especially on my bladder since my belly started growing in the 2nd trimester (when they say it's supposed to be a little better). Also now it's so bad that if I wait to long to go, I have a hard time going - almost as if something is blocking my bladder from releasing! Of course this being my first pregnancy I don't have anything to compare with, so my doctor may be right. THAT I have to say is my biggest complaint in pregnancy discomforts, living in the bathroom for 9 months!

In any case, I wanted to share my story as it is so far because it helped me to read other people's stories. Especially when I finally found some that they hadn't had any bleeding, that made me feel better too and gave me hope! I will update and hopefully that will be after I've brought my little baby girl home safe and sound from the hospital....

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Update (9/5/00)

I made it to 38 1/2 weeks gestation and had my very healthy, beautiful baby girl Samantha on August 8, 2000. She was delivered scheduled c-section 12 days before my due date but weighing 7lbs 15oz, who would believe she was early? At birth the placenta was still completly covering the cervix, and my doctor told me that in 13 years I was only the second case she'd had of complete previa where there was no bleeding throughout the pregnancy. In any case it helped very much to have this web site to read person stories and I hope my story gives the reassurance that it may just be possible to have this condition and NOT bleed throughout the entire pregnancy and have a healthy baby. I strongly believe now that if you are going to bleed it's just going to happen and no one should feel guilty that they "did" anything to cause the bleeding (do try to take it easy though and follow doctor's advice!) Oh an added note - after my baby was delievered my doctor informed me that I had a few rather large fibroid tumors. We knew I had them but apparently they had gotten fairly big. This to me clears up the mystery in my case anyway as to why my placenta was previa..it had no place else to go. Good luck to all out there going through this now.

due date: Baby born 

 

I was a complete PP mom, mine started with a lot of pelvic pain and I haven't heard a lot of people talk about any pain but I had it bad. I was put on complete bed rest at 27 weeks and I have 3 children at home ages 7,5,& 3. I was also seeing an herb specialist which put me on Red Raspberry, I was taking 12 a day to strengthen my uterus and lessen the bleeding when it started. My doctor was amazed that I went clear to 36 weeks before the bleeding started, he was also surprised by the small amount of bleeding that there was. I would recommend to anyone with placenta previa to also take red raspberry or to at least read up on the herb to learn more about it. My baby was born at 36 weeks and weighed 5lbs. 11 oz. and very healthy, we took her home when we left the hospital. There is hope, e-mail me if you would like to talk. I've done a lot of reading and have learned a lot about placenta previa. Good luck to all of you.

This is a happy story for all worried about pp. At 20 weeks I was told I had a low lying placenta, but not to worry. I had no problems at this time. I went for another ultra sound at 28 weeks and was told I had a pp. I had all the normal restriction- no sex,no exercise and to be off my feet as much as possible. My husband and I were so afraid that the baby was going to come way too early. My doctor said she just wanted to get me to 38 weeks and then we would have a c-section. I did not experience any problems at all. Though this was good, the further along I got the more worried we became that if I did have problems they would be serious. We had another ultra sound at 35 weeks which showed that I still did have a pp and that our doctor would try to get me to 38 weeks. When we were talking about the c-section date we expressed concern about waiting until 38 weeks based on all the helpful stories we read on this web site. I felt guilty getting my doctor to take the baby at 37 weeks if I was able to make it another week. WELL-we are so thankful for all the stories that made us push for 37 weeks!!!! The morning I was going in for my amnio to make sure the babys lungs were okay I felt awful. That evening I called my doctor about the back pain. I went in to be monitored and only had 2 contractions in 1 hour-which is normal anyway being 9 months pregnant. That morning my doctor called and said to hold off coming because one of the test results did not come back positive and she needed to consult someone else. She called back later and said with the situation that they were going ahead with the c-section. By the time I got to the hospital and hooked up to the monitor I was contracting every 2-4 minutes. I got pushed ahead for my c-section before I ran into any problems. I made it the whole time without any bleeding!!!! I truly feel that this web site saved me from any problems. By getting educated on this web site from personal stories I knew that it was very risky to wait until 38 weeks. My husband and I are so grateful for all of the stories and it scares us to think what would have happened if I was not already in the hospital when I went into labor 3 weeks and 1 day early. We are the very proud parents of our second child born 3 weeks early-Andrew James. 6lbs 15 oz 20 inchs. I am also trying to find out if many of you have had a pregnancy after a pp without any problems. We were told that my chances increase, but it would be unusual. We want a third child, but the pp situation was an awful scare for us. 

story: My previa story is different from most that I've read. In a strange coincidence, I had a friend who was diagnosed with p.previa at about 15 weeks and put on bed rest because of severe bleeding. So when I went for my 20 week ultrasound, I asked out of curiosity, where the placenta was. The tech found it and said that it was indeed low, but nothing to worry about because often they move up. She said I'd have another ultrasound at 30 weeks just to make sure. I went home confident that it would move up. At my 28 week appointment, I'd had the tiniest bit of spotting, and asked the dr. if it could because of the low-lying placenta. She said, "WHAT??" For some reason, it had not been noted on my chart. That was kind of scary! Anyway, she arranged for the second ultrasound and I went home, still not worried. At the 30 week ultrasound, the tech saw the placenta, and said, "There it is... it's in the right spot. It won't cause you any problems." I'd no sooner breathed a sigh of relief when she said, "Oh, wait...." and started clicking around on her screen. Turns out that I did have placenta previa, and it was complete. I had a regular appointment immediately following that one and was told no sex, nothing strenuous, and don't go farther than from my house to the hospital! (About 20 minutes.) Also if there was any bleeding at all I was to call immediately. And I would have a c-section. I went home very upset, obviously. Then I got on the web and read many, many previa stories, and I'd say that most of the women who submitted their stories had some major bleeding episodes, so that's what I expected. I felt like a walking time-bomb. But as the days and then weeks went by, I felt better and better. I knew that every day I didn't bleed was one more day of good development for my baby. I got kind of bored, not going anywhere, but of course it was worth it, for safety's sake. I was scheduled for the c-section on August 18th, nine days before my due date, but on the morning of the 14th I woke up with what I think was the mucous plug dislodging. I called the doctor (this was at 4 a.m. and was just the on-call doctor) and he told me to go back to sleep and if anything had changed in the morning, to call back! So after checking all my pregnancy books and seeing that the mucous plug is indeed a sign of impending labor, I packed my bags and went back to bed. When I got up I didn't eat anything because I knew with a c-section I wasn't supposed to. My own doctor called me (actually her husband... they're in practice together) at 8:30 and said he'd talked to his wife (my ob)and they'd like me to come on in to be checked. So I called my husband, he came home from work, and we spent the next hour rushing around doing things like packing up the dog's stuff, looking for cameras, etc., because I kind of knew they would do the section that day. When we got to the hospital, the monitor showed I was having contractions, although they must have been pretty weak, because they were not painful or anything. So they decided that since I was having early labor signs, they would do the c-section. They pointed out that if it wasn't labor, then I was starting to bleed, so they'd need to do it anyway. And just a couple hours later, our son was born! He was 8 pounds and 20 inches long. A happy ending.

I know I was very lucky. I wanted to post my story because when I was diagnosed, I read all the bleed stories and got really scared. I didn't realize that you could actually get through placenta previa without bleeding. I know that I was extremely lucky to do so and I'm so grateful. I was also really glad to read all the stories and know that even if I did bleed and the baby came early, that everything would be ok. Best wishes to everyone.

I found out that I was pregnant at 9 weeks. I had regular periods and did not know that I was pregnant until I was so sick and decided to do a preg. test. It was positive, much to my surprise. I stopped bleeding in my 9th week. Not much happened until my 20th week u/s. They noticed that had a low lying placenta. They would check it in 10 weeks. The baby was noted as a girl. It was also noted that she had a "bright bowel". We monitored this also at 10 weeks - 30 weeks gestation. At my 30week visit to the perinatalogist, she noted that I had complete placenta previa with no invasion or placenta accreta or increta. We decided that I would come back 3 weeks later to decide when to take the baby because of the placenta previa. I had already had 5 c-sections. However, my water broke on Aug 3rd - my 32nd week of preg. I was rushed to the "big" hospital in the town next to us. They have a level 3 nursery. On the ambulance ride over, I started to bleed. When I got to the L&D they did a u/s and it was noted that this was much more serious then they ever thought. They involved a urologist, oncologist and two high-risk OB's. They also noted 19 people in the operating room. I ended up having "Placenta Percreta" This is when the placenta invades uterus and went completely through the uterine tissue and tapped on to my bladder. The doctor prepared for the "worst case scenario". He had blood ready and 4 specialist to work on me. It took them 30 minutes to get my baby out. Her apgar was a 1 (she was coded) and 8 was her next apgar. She was in NICU for 9 days. She was vented and went on a CPAP to keep her lungs from collasping. She did a wonderful job maturing! The doctor told my husband that he was very worried about me and that I would have a hysterectomy, a blood transfusion and most likely lose a part or all of my bladder. Thank God I lived through this experience. This was a very scary experience. If I can help anyone with this type of problem, I will talk with you. We are doing great now. It took my about 2 1/2 months just to feel better. The baby is 3 months old today and she is weighing about 10 pounds. She is just so precious. Thanks for listening!!!

I realize this happened years earlier than the rest of you going through this now, but I can offer some hope. I am the mother of three boys Chris - 14 1/2, Dustin 13, and Brandon 2. I had a complete placenta previa while pregnant with Dustin - I was diagnosed at 28 weeks. I had just gone to the bathroom and started gushing blood. Naturally I freaked out and called the doctor. We lived a significant distance from the hospital and were told to get there as soon as possible. We arrived and went through all the testing and ultrasounds and were told I had a placental abruption. I stayed the weekend in the hospital and went home on Monday. I had been working part time and also caring for our 14 month old son Chris. I had to quit my job and try to rest, which we all know is a joke with a toddler that age :-) I tried my best to rest but .......About 2 weeks later - more bleeding. Back to the hospital. This time they decided to keep me - due to the fact that I had such a small toddler and no help at home. I was put on bedrest in the hospital with NO bathroom priviledges and at times was on my head with the bed foot facing the ceiling. I received 17 pints of blood during transfusions in that almost 2 month period of being in the hospital. I was away from my 14 month old for the first time, had an alcoholic husband and stuck in bed!!!! I thought I would lose my mind. I was on breathine and terbutalyne (spelling?) for that whole period of time and barely gained any weight as a result of that. Well anyhow Dustin Michael Smith was born by C-Section on July 23, 1987 at 36 weeks because they feared I would bleed to death during a bad bleed. I had to be put out because the spinal didn't work. He was not breathing when he was born, had to be intubated and fed through his stomach. He spent the first two weeks of his life in intensive care, but came home at a whopping 5 pounds 14 ounces and fairly health. It was a long haul I have to admit, but now the years have gone by and Dustin is as happy and healthy as the rest of em. He was real small for a long time but has now caught up and surpassed his peers in size. I just want to stress the bed rest - I know I was tempted to "cheat" but even though you may want to, you need to rest for your baby - it will all be worth it in the end. God Bless you All, Amy

I am 23, and am 21 wks pregnant, I have 2 children ages 2 and 4, both pregnancy's were normal and without any complications. After I stopped nursing my daughter I had horrible cramps and was told I had ENDOMETRIOSIS. I had the laparoscopy done and told It would be harder to get pregnant because of this. The cramping went away after surgery but returned after only 3 weeks. The only sure way for it to completely go away is to have my uterus removed or to get pregnant, but of course if pain returns after this baby, I will have my uterus removed!! 

We started trying to get pregnant and were succesful the first month. Right after taking the pregnancy test, I immediatly felt that there was be something wrong with the pregnancy, it just didn't feel right! I was told the firts month that my progesterone level was low and to take pills. I did until my 3rd mo. and then placenta was stong enough to do its job. I was really sick with morning sickness with first 2, yet with this one I only threw up once but had a lot of nausea all the time. I was also way smaller then with my other 2. 

I have had constant shooting pains and cramping, also pressure down below and leg cramping at top. I was told by my Dr. that this was normal and that it was growing pains but much worse since it was 3rd pregnancy.

At 20 weeks I had an ultrasound at which time they discovered that I was having a BOY, but also that I had Partial PP and that the Placenta was completely touching my cervix. The Dr showed me a picture of what it looks like, told me no sex, heavy lifting, light housework, and try to rest whenever possible. Also explined that it might move north withing 1 to 6 weeks and that if bleeding occured to call him. Well I totally freaked out knew that the bad feeling that I've had all along must be this, and immediatly started doing research on web. I have read every story here and appreciate all the info. that has been shared. I am only 21 weeks along and am scared of what could happen if it came to the worst, like some women have explained. I have an appt. for and ultrasound @ 24 weeks to see how it is doing and another @28 weeks. I read that you are at greater risk of having this if you've had surgery in your uterus which I did. I still have a lot of pain and also am short of breath sometimes or feel as if my heart is going to come out of my chest at other times. Dr. has referred me to a cardiologist. 

I would appreciate it if people wrote to me, since I still have a long ways to go and really need the comfort from those who are going through it or have gone through it. This last week has seemed so long!!! Also I'm still small compared to other pregnancys but Dr. says I am fine. I feel the baby move a lot but very low. I also feel the need to go to the bathroom all the time!! Please write soon!!! 

At 10 weeks I experienced bright red bleeding so my doc ordered an ultrasound which showed my placenta was touching or very close to the os. I was basically told to take it easy & stay on bed rest. The bleeding subsided in a day or so and I felt fine. I was able to resume normal activites a few weeks later since I had not experienced any other bleeding or spotting. 

Four weeks later, I experienced a major bleed and ended up in the ER. The new ultrasound still showed a low laying placenta and again I was put on bed rest. Now, I just have to wait to see if the placenta moves as my uterus grows. 

It seems that major bleeding is more common in the later stages of pregnancy. I am terrified that I will hemorrage later in my pregnancy since I've already experienced an early major bleed.

If any other women have gone through a similar experience, please email me! I feel like I'm the only one who has bled so much this early.

e-mail: christl1@ccf.org

due date: 06/27/00

story: I had a routine u/s at 19 weeks just to get an actual due date and I was then diagnosed with complete PP. The doctor said not to worry because 90% of the time the placenta finds it's way to where it needs to be by 7 or 8 months. He just warned me not to have any sexual intercourse until my next u/s which was like 26 weeks. I was seeing a nurse-midwife for my prenatal care who acted like it was no big deal and never really discussed the fact that I may need a c-section. Well needless to say I still had PP. The doctor reassured me this was really nothing to worry about, just told me to take it easy. I have 2 other small children at home and work a full time job so that wasn't very easy. I never had any complications during my pregnancy from the PP and they continued to do u/s monitoring up until 3 weeks before my Due Date. The doctor finally started telling me that things didn't seem to promising and he was going to schedule me for an amnio to see how the lungs were developed...they weren't developed enough at that point for them to do a c-section so he waited another week and did another amnio and finally he felt comfortable with the results so he scheduled me to arrive at 7:00am the next day for a c-section. Well needless to say I went home and tried finishing up all the last minute things we needed to get done before the babies arrival. We took our 2 other children to my parents home so that we could leave bright and early for the hospital in the morning. Well we were so excited about the next day finally about 10:00pm we ordered something to eat because I couldn't eat after midnight. While waiting for the food I felt very "wet". It was very hot and I figured i was sweating...well I wasn't I was covered in blood. We rushed out of the house so fast we didn't take anything we had packed. We were in such shock and scared to death. We arrived at the hospital in about 10 minutes ( any other day it would have taken 25) I was crying the whole way to the hospital. When we arrived there they rushed me in an operating room and awoke a resident who was on-call. He looked scared to death. I couldn't believe this was happening. After some assessment and testing they decided they would watch the bleeding and try to hold it off 8 hours until my regular doctor could do the surgery. Thank God I remained stable through the night. My doctor couldn't believe the severity of my PP when he actually was able to get in there and look at it, he said I was so lucky I didn't have any bleeding during my pregnancy. On June 15th, 2000 @ 8:03am my little beautiful baby arrived and I couldn't have been happier!I guess if I had any advice to give it would be to really know how serious PP can be and if you are seeing a nurse-midwife for your prenatal care and are diagnosed with PP...find a doctor! Nurse-midwives are great for a regular pregnancy but they are not realistic when dealing with PP. My midwife wouldn't even discuss the possibility of a c-section. And believe me a c-section is a lot to have to recover from. But it is all worth it at the end!GOOD LUCK