Born-03/29/01

My story begins when I was 5 weeks pregnant. I was bleeding EXTREMELY bad. Went to the Dr. and after an ultrasound and my HcG levels checked. They told me you are pregnant, but you need to come back tomorrow for more HcG levels drawn. I came back and to the Drs. amazement my levels had gone up. I was still bleeding, so I had to come back after another week. My Dr. told me to carry on like normal because I was more then likely going to miscarry anyways. Thankfully I didn't listen I put myself on strict bed rest. After weeks of this going back to the Dr. getting HcG levels drawn and 4 ultrasounds, they came to the conclusion that I was having a twin pregnancy and one was normal and fine, but the other was a molar pregnancy. I was sent to the Mayo Clinic-MN where they came to the conclusion that indeed I was pregnant with a healthy pregnancy, but what the others were seeing was a large clot of blood. Theproblem was that the blood blot was above the baby and MUCH larger then the baby. They gave us a 40% chance that baby would survive the clot if it decided to come out, or else the clot would break up gradually and come out, or the clot would get reabsorbed into my body which could take months since the clot was so large. In my case the clot formed when the placenta attached to the uterine wall, it decided to attach to a main blood artery which blead out and formed the clot. I went back weekly for ultrasounds to monitor to clot. Eventually, actually at 20 weeks they discovered that I had complete placenta previa and they also believed that it was possibly PP accreta. I was monitored VERY closely and to make my story short I had a total of 20 ultrasounds and an MRI to rule out the accreta. Well ladies if you are possibly facing a pp pregnancy that involves the possibiliy of a (accreta "when the placenta grows into the uterine wall", increta (when the placenta grow throuh the uterine wall", or percreta "when the placenta grows into the uterine wall and through it and to other organs") if you take anything away from my story at all. Please let it be to NEVER trust an MRI when it comes to any of these circumstances. Trust the ultrasound. When they discovered the pp previa with me they told me that I would be delivering my baby there 4 weeks before my due date. This scared me so much. 4 WEEKS I thought that was crazy, they reassured me that they were going to perform and amniocentesis first to make sure baby was ready to be born, so that helped me calm down a little. I never had anymore bleeding the rest of my pregnancy. I had extremely bad pelvic pain so was put on bedrest 8 weeks before my scheduled c-section. 5 1/2 weeks before my actual due date I went into labor. My labor was stopped and I was taken in Ambulance to Rochester. I wasn't delivered right away because it was 2am and they were guessing that I was going to have pp accreta. So they wanted to be full staffed if they ran into any problems. I made it through the weekend and they performed an amniocentesis on me on Monday and discovered that baby WAS NOT ready to be born. They gave steroid injections for the next two days and decided to go ahead and do my c-section on Thursday. I had previously donated 2 units of my own blood just in case there were any problems. My Dr. told me that I could hemmorage and if that was the case that a hysterectomy could be a possibility, but they didn't think the placenta had grown in that bad because the MRI revealed that the placenta hadn't grown through at all. So we were thinking everything would be fine.

Well 03/29/01 at 9:46am our little miracle Natalie Peyton was born via c-section-we had fought so hard for our little girl for 8 whole months. Those months were horrible we never knew what was going to happen next. She was for sure our little fighter. She was born one month early and weighed 6lb. 4 oz. and was 19 inches long. She came out blue and not breathing at all which was extremely very scary for my husband. They had intibated me because they felt that if I hemmoraged that the 5 minutes it takes to prepare you for intibation would be crutial to me. And as it turns out it saved my life. I am here today because of the grace of God! My Dr. was wonderful she had everything prepared and all of the Drs. they needed on hand. They opened my tummy up and saw the placenta right away. It had grown through my uterus. My husband was in the delivery room and said he couldn't believe how much blood was coming out of me, it was all over, all over the floor getting tracked all around. As soon as they cut my uterus open to get little Natalie out I hemmoraged. My Dr. knew that at the age of 25 I didn't want a hysterectomy, she did everything in her power to save my uterus, but just couldn't. When the surgeon got to me my blood pressure was 40/0. I was very close to dying! My blood pressure actually got so low and I was bleeding out so bad that they had to bring me back to-they gave me some kind of drug to reverse the affects of remembering being concious during my operation. I was in surgery for about 2 1/2 hours. My husband didn't know if I would live or die he was just trusting that Dr. were taking good care of me. In the mean while Natalie was starting to breathe on her own. She is such a fighter! It took her about 2 hours to come around but when she came around she did it really fast.

During my operation I received 7 units of blood and 16 units of IV fluids. I was puffed up so bad after my operation I could hardly move my fingers. I ended up getting 6 more units of blood and 2 units of frozen blood plasma over the next 2 days. My uterine veins were notclotting after they took out my uterus. I ended up having placent previe percreta. The placenta had grown everywhere all the way to my bladder. I ended up having to have a catheter in for a week because my bladder was injured. I am so thankful to be alive and I was taken care of so wonderfully. If I would have delivered her in our town I would have died for sure and not sure if they could have handled Natalie's breathing problems. They called her a lazy baby for the facts that she was premature, I had been put under anesthesia, and they had to cut through the placenta to get her out. I stayed a total of 13 days in the hospital.

Now Natalieis VERY happy and healthy 7 1/2 month old and she is doing great. She weighs 17 lbs. She just got her first two teeth. I am doing good too, have had a hard time dealing with being 24 and having a hysterectomy but count my blessings everyday that I am alive so what else could you ask for. We also have a 4 1/2 year old son. This has too been extremely hard on him. He didn't understand why Mommy could longer do anything with him while I was on bed rest. Wow! I couldn't believe how much that affected him. So for any of you who are expecting and have another little one hang in their. I would love for any of you who read this to email me if you haven't yet had your babies and I would love to help you through this hard time. And to anyone who has had a similar circumstance any encouraging words would be greatly appreciated. This has been the hardest thing I have ever gone through in my whole life and I am so happy that tomorrow I get to celebrate my 26th B-Day with both of my children and the most wonderful supportive husband you could imagine. He was in the hospital with me for the whole 13 days, he was by my side while I was hemorraging out, he stayed by myside the whole time and he was my ROCK! I love him and my kids with all my heart and cherish every minute of everyday with them.

Remember that you can never hug and kiss and say I LOVE YOU too much. I wish the best for all of you and always know that God is watching out for you and your baby. HUGS to ALL-Tasha A.

We found out we were pregnant Nov. 19th 2001. It was the day after we had returned home from the last vacation we will probably take in a long time. Of course the pregnancy test didn't have to say anything. I was sick the whole trip and didn't have to be told what I already knew. I made a Dr's appt. and everything seemed to be going great. Then I got to my 16th week. I had an ultrasound and was told I had complete previa. My Dr. wouldn't even discuss it with me. I left not knowing a thing. I went home and whipped out my 10+ pregnancy books which only gave a one line definition of what PP is. They should never upset a pregnant women because now I have one of the best highrisk OB's on the east coast. Upon seeing my new Dr. at 20 wks everything was explained to me. They told me now I just had marginal previa with just the tip covering my cervix and since it was still early it would most likely move up. Still, we took a few precautions like not internals for the rest of the preg. WOOHOO. We watched me closely and no matter what they say the worry never seems to leave. I waited for my first milestone 28 wks.

That morning I woke up kissed my husband and said we made it. He left for work and I went to the bathroom to get ready to leave myself. I felt a little gush and realized I was bleeding. I called my Dr in a panic and was told to meet her at the office. I paged my husband he came home and off we went. She told me I had had a small bleed (because there is a difference between small and big). I went to the hospital for some monitering and was kept overnight. I was put on bedrest at home. 2 weeks later same deal. Husband went to work I went to the bathroom. Next thing we know we are at the hospital. 2 weeks later SAME thing. At this point it was actually getting kind of funny. 1 week later same thing. They kept me over night Mon and sent me home tues. After every bleed I would pass tons of bloodclots. Some the size of golfballs. I went to an appt. On thurs and my Dr said I think we are going to make it to the end. We are just having some small annoying bleeds but nothing big. We scheduled a C-section for 29 wks. The next night I got up to go to the bathroom and felt a HUGE gush. I couldn't even look down. All I saw was Chris' face white as a ghost. My tan pants were now bright red. I knew this was it, the BIG bleed everyone talks about. I called my Dr. and a stranger called me back. She was getting married this weekend and her subsitute called and told us to go to L&D. We got there and and I got into bed with a trail of blood on the floor behind me.

Everything else happened to fast. There were tons of Drs. in the room and nurses were pulling blood soaked towels out from between my legs. One Dr wanted to deliver another didn't. Finally my body took over and started gushing with blood to were everyone finally said ok lets do this. Next thing I know, my husband was changing into scrubs and they were doing my epidural as they wheeled me down the hall to the OR. Chris was barely in the room when I heard the DR. say look at all that hair. Then my screaming Kathryn Julia was entered the world. They smushed her against my face for a kiss and her and Chris were whisked off to the NICU. At 34 wks she wieghed 5 Lbs. 2 Oz, 18 inches long, scoring a 9 on her 1 min apgar. But that soon changed. I hadn't even seen her yet when I got the call. They had to intibate her because her lungs were not at all developed. She had pnuemonia, ticipsea, and every breathing problem but apenea. The C-section was done so fast they had broken her collerbone. It felt like weeks before she made any progress. Then one day I went in and she was off almost everything. It seemed like overnight she had a complete turned around. After 27 days we were finally able to bring our little angel home. No moniters, no meds, just all the fears of two brand new parents. She's now 6 months old and already a handful. But we love every minute of it.

due date: March 19, 2002 

 

I'm 41 years old with a wonderful hubby and 3 year-old at home. I'm 28 weeks pregnant; this has been a very comfortable pregnancy and I've enjoyed being pregnant -- as opposed to my first, when I had hyperemesis/g for 5.5 months and excruciating pubic symphesis! I did get gestational diabetes at 6 weeks but have a great team of nurses helping me I have a magnificent high-risk ob/gyn. At 11 weeks they did a vaginal ultrasound to confirm my due date. I remember the doctor mentioning that the placenta was low-lying but he said it was nothing to worry about and I completely forgot about it. At 21 weeks, I had another ultrasound for the anatomical survey and the baby was behind my navel so they couldn't get all the stats they wanted and rescheduled me for 2 weeks later. That u/s revealed complete placenta previa and came with the instructions of no intercourse, no karate training, no exercise, "bouncing" and I have to take it very, very easy. Of course, I was stunned and had no questions because I was speechless. My doctor said we'd get another ultrasound in January to see if it moved and if not, we'd discuss issues like blood replacement, hysterectomy, etc. I went home, told my husband and tried to get some rest. 

 

The next morning, I got on the internet and researched pp and had the good cry I should have had the day before! I had no idea placenta previa is so very serious! I've tried to adhere to my doctor's instructions but being as I don't feel "sick" it's difficult. I have a lot of self-consciousness about asking for help when I feel able-bodied and of course, my 3 year-old doesn't understand why I can't pick her up and why her kisses to my tummy don't "fix the boo-boo." I've only had one very minor bleed (I wouldn't even call it a bleed) when we had friends over all day last weekend to make tamales. I thought I was sitting all day but the up 

& down of greeting friends must've been too much and at the end of the day I noticed my toilet tissue and urine were an "off color," darker than usual and smelled coppery (like on the last day of a period). That was enough to scare me back into bed for the next day to rest! I do notice that when I overdo it right now -- which would not normally be considered overdoing it, I get excruciatingly tired. I don't remember being this tired with my first pregnancy and my iron's good (12.5) so I'm assuming it has something to do with the placenta previa. Is extreme fatigue a symptom others are experiencing? Some days I feel like I can barely function! I also have low pelvic pressure and pubic pain when I don't take time to rest with my feet up in the afternoons. My next ultrasound is January 4th and follow-up with Doc is January 15th. I'll keep everyone posted and you're all in my prayers.

At 18 weeks I had my first ultrasound and from this was diagnosed with complete placenta previa, with the placenta lying at the posterior. Did a little research but had had no bleeds up to that point and so I just decided to take it day by day. Went for my second ultrasound at 27 weeks (still no bleeding) and was told that the placenta had moved slightly but nothing significant. Went for a third ultrasound at 32 weeks and was told that I now had marginal pp but that it was still too close to my cervix for a vaginal delivery. At this point the doctor finally decided to order up a transvaginal u/s and at 36 weeks my placenta had apparently moved far enough away from my uterus that I will be able to deliver vaginally. I am now 37 weeks and feeling fine.

The baby is apparently above average size with the head down and the doctor is astounded that I have never had any bleeds. Throughout this waiting period my doctor has been on the side of caution and very informative. I hope that this is encouraging to newly diagnosed pp's. Good luck to all, Kathryn

due date: July 20, 2002 

 

This is my fourth pregnancy, I have a daughter who is five and we have had two misscarriages before this pregnancy. Last week I went for my first ultrasound at 14 weeks and everything looked good. We were so exstatic that my body held onto to a pregancy this long and that the risk of losing it was all but gone. Since I just into my second trimester I am starting to feel so good, and then my doc calls to tell my that I have PP. I can't sleep, can't smile, can't stop shaking. I am doing better now that I've done a little research and now that I've heard some stories where the placenta shifted upwards, which is what my doctor said would likely happen. I'm just taking it easy for now, I think that I would do anything to save this pregancy, and I have to go for another u/s in two weeks. I'll keep you posted. Just keepin my head up for now, and praying alot. 

 

********************* 

Update: (5/28/02) 

 

This is my awesome update...I just went to have a follow up u/s and not only are we having a boy, but the placenta migrated enough to have a normal birth, keep smiling girls!!!!

Born Aug. 28th 2001

This being my 4th pregnancy and as all the other ones were fine we opted to not get an ultrasound for insurance purposes.( This was the only one we didn't have insurance). Well God was surely watching out for me. I was busy all summer taking care of my other 3 and going on vacation. We flew to NH when I was 6 1/2 months along. all this time my pregnancy was fine. I had also been helping my aunt get ready for her daughters wedding, planning showers, etc. Still nothing unusual, then on the night of the shower, August 28th it all happened.(I wasn't doing anything yet so it seemed like I was gonna be pregnant forever. And I sure wasn't excpecting this!!) I had been on my feet all day getting ready, making fruit bowls ,decorating and all that last minute stuff. It was around 6 PM and I was trying to tack some balloons in the ceiling. I was reaching up when it felt like my water broke, I ran to the bathroom and much to my surprise it was bright red blood.I started shaking and hollered for my cousin to get her mom. She came running and I tried to get off the toilet, but I just kept bleeding, so I sat back down.At that time I started hemmorhaging and I got really nervous because I couldn't remember the last time I felt the baby move.My aunt called 911 and the ambulance came, by then I was passing big clots and was shaking. They put an oxygen mask on me and laid me on the kitchen floor, Took my blood pressure and put an IV in.My uncle had called my husband and he came over.(a friend took the other 3 kids for us, my sister was flying out to help, but wouldn't be arriving until the 1st of September) He arrived when they were loading me in the ambulance.It was now about 6:45. On the way to the hospital the baby started to move, so I was quite releived about that. we got to the hospital and they quickly did an ultrasound and found out I had complete previa. So off to the operating room(this was rather scary since I had never had a surgery of any kind)at 8:18 out came Shiloh James w/ an apgar score of 8 and 9. Pretty amazing, the nurses all called him the miracle baby. we were in the hospital for 4 days and I didn't even need a transfusion.(I had been taking iron faithfully during my pregnancy).

So now my little guy is 5 months old and growing like a weed.And I thank God for taking such good care of me during my pregnancy( the more I read about pp the more I'm amazed I had no bleeding until then) and protecting my little angel.

This is an update to my previous story. Seven weeks have passed since I was diagnosed with placenta previa. I am now 25 weeks along. Fortunately, the placenta has moved north and is now just low lying. However, unfortunately, I have a rare condition called placenta diffusa (or placenta membrancea). The incidence of occurance is about 1:20,000 - 40,000. The placenta is very thin and covers about 75% of my uterus. The placenta covers the back, sides and front of the uterus with a little over the fundus BUT no longer over the cervix!

Most placentas are pancake shaped and about 20 cm in diameter and 2.5 cm thick at birth. In placenta diffusa, the placenta is much thinner and can be as large as 40 cm in diameter at birth. Similar to placenta previa, there is high incidences of bleeding through out the pregnancy and during labour. In about 30% of cases, the placenta will not separate completely from the uterus after birth due to the large amount of implatation area. Some of the problems I could face are intra-uterine growth retardation, pre-term labour and antenatal and postnatal bleeding.

I am fortunate that I do not have placenta previa anymore- many placenta diffusa cases do which really complicates the condition.

So, I will be signing off from this website and wish good luck to all previa Moms for a good pregnancy out come.

Best Regards, Lynda

I was diagnosed with complete placenta previa at my 19 week ultrasound. It was confirmed that I was having a boy (which was wonderful news to my husband and I). The Dr. told me not to worry as they always say, because it should move up by the time your uterus start to really expand. At 23 weeks the placenta had not moved. I continued to have ultrasound until 32 weeks because they were going to schedule an amniocentesis at 35 weeks. If I failed to mention, I had no bleeds at all. When I was 33 weeks and 5 days I had a major bleed. My mom rushed me to the hospital and called my husband once we got there. The hospital sent the house doctor in while calling my Dr. They told me the baby was in no trouble but their main concern was me. My Dr. arrived about 15 minutes and told me I was going to undergo an emergency c-section because of the blood loss and warned me of a possible blood transfusion and hysterectomy. I had the surgery and all went well. My son Michael was born 5 lbs exactly and had a minor touch of respiratory destress but was breathing really well on his own. He was in NICU on oxygen for one day, on Iv for 2 days, and was breathing wonderfully for the remaining days. I had no steroid shots and he have no major problems. All I had was god and I knew he was with my baby for him to come out of NICU in just 10 days. He is doing wonderful. Just pray about your situation and god will handle the rest.

God Bless you all because I know how stressful the situation could be.

due date: 19 August 1999 

 

I had a scan yesterday at 17 weeks because I'm large for dates with my 4th baby. It was to rule out twins. No twins, just a bouncing baby boy (my 3rd) and what you would call a complete placenta praevia. (In New Zealand I have what is called a grade 4 p.p. which completely covers the cervical os.) I'm a midwife so I thought I knew a little bit about P.P.s and said "that's not a concern is it because once the lower segment forms it will just 'move' up" I have had marginal p.p.s with my previous babies and that's what happened. The Radiologist said that is less likely in the case of a grade 4, so rescan at 32 weeks, Bye. So I've been swanning around quite oblivious and now I'm more concerned, what do I avoid, does anyone care? The referral protocol in N.Z. is if it's still p.p. at 32 weeks then I get referred for specialist care. The unspoken thing is of course you will probably bleed before then so the referral will be negated and it'll be straight to secondary care. 

 

What should I do? (3/10/99) 

******************* 

Update (6/4/99) 

 

Just an update on my story, though there is really no update. I've had no bleeding, hurray, and I'm nearly 29 weeks. The baby remains in a transverse position which is very unusual and usually points to an obstruction, such as a placenta praevia. I look like I'm carrying a watermelon, I also have a separated symphysis pubis so even if I wanted to do too much physical stuff I couldn't. It is 2-3 weeks until my scan and then we will see what the verdict is. 

 

******************** 

Update (7/2/99) 

 

I had my followup scan and the radiologist said that the placenta was clear of the os. Big cheers but when I started to grill him about position etc he clammed up. He was happy that it appeared clear of the os but I, as both a midwife and the holder of this particular placenta, wanted much more info. My husband was with me and we both payed very close attention to where he said "you can see here it starts to fade away" but lying flat on my back with my abdomen exposed I was not as 'empowered' as I liked to have been and didn't push for the hard answers. 

 

I had an antenatal appointment today and both the midwife and I were unhappy with the report as it basically said the placenta is clear of the os. No mention of position etc. Given that my son is oblique facing the right of my cervix and babies having a preference for facing their placentas and the whoosh tones on the placenta were very low in my abdomen we are alittle sceptical. If he remains oblique at my next visit in two weeks I'll be rescanned so I still haven't left the club! I'm just in transit. 

 

******************** 

Update (8/1) 

 

Here's the final update to my story which took an unexpected twist.  My placenta moved clear of the os and I thought hurray, normal delivery, normal labour etc. 

 

A bit more than a week after my scan I caught a nasty viral flu and was in bed for a week. Just as I was recovering from it I started itching and noticed my urine resembled overbrewed tea. I contacted my midwife and said "something's not right, I think it's cholestasis." She hadn't heard of it but agreed to refer me to the obstetrician at my local hospital for review. 

 

I went to see him on Friday and he took bloods and said he'd contact me when the results were in and either admit me or give me a prescription for the itching. He rang that afternoon and called me back in. My liver function tests were abnormal. I wasn't admitted but told to have another set of bloods done on Monday and come in to see the specialist on duty that day. He gave me a prescription for antihistamines which didn't work. 

 

On Monday as soon as my blood results were back the new specialist had me admitted to the high level hospital in Auckland as my liver function tests were even higher. 

 

I was admitted and had a BPP and a liver and gall bladder scan. I was having blood tests twice a day and then my blood pressure started rising. On Thursday I had a definite diagnosis of cholestasis of pregnancy where bile salts were building up in my blood and my liver was failing AND GPH! The miracle drug which is supposed to combat the bile salts didn't work so on Friday they started an induction. At midday they broke my waters and immediately the fetal heart started dipping but it came back up so no one was panicking. I wasn't dilating so they hooked me up to a syntocinon drip and tried to get either me or the baby to declare ourselves. I had some really good contractions and brought up my breakfast but did nothing dilation wise. At around 11 pm the baby's heart rate was dipping and staying down too long. The obstetrician did an examination no more dilation and he felt cord. So I was rushed to theatre head down, bottom up for an emergency caesarean under G.A. 

 

My baby was 35 weeks and it looked like he might spend a day or two in NICU under observation. Unfortunately his lungs had not developed properly so he was in NICU for two weeks and had to have surfactant, CPAP, antibiotics and only started oral feeds the day before he came home. He recovered very quickly and removed CPAP, nasal prongs for oxygen, IV luers, NG tubes, in fact anything they put in his body. He decided he didn't need anything and generally he was right. 

 

Tobias is now at home and we're coping well. He was a big boy at 5lbs 4oz and is doing well. 

 

So even if you escape the placenta previa club it looks like it's not a good idea to breathe too easily!! 

 

******************** 

due date: 20 May 2002 

 

I'm a returning member of the club! I first posted in August 1999 when at 17 weeks I was diagnosed with a complete placenta previa. At 32 weeks it had moved up and out of the way so all looked good - didn't turn out so well but that is another story (listed on this site) So this time when I was told I once again had a pp at 18 weeks I was not concerned. It always moves. Well it hasn't! It is sitting pretty right across my caesar scar and stroking my cervix. So it looks like I won't be leaving the club this time! I am concerned that it is sitting right where my scar is since it will mean cutting through the placenta to deliver my baby boy. He is lying partially breech-partially transverse so even if he could squeeze past the edge of the placenta he has no intention of doing so! 

 

So now I wait.....