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Has anyone here had placenta previa in more than one pregnancy and had the placenta


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Placentas are attached by blood vessels and do not "move" to a new location. Imagine drawing a circle on a balloon near the top. As you inflate the balloon, the circle appears to "move" but it's location on the balloon has never changed. This is exactly what happens with these all too frequent premature diagnoses. There's just no way they can know this until later in the pregnancy if your placenta attached to and grew on your cervix.

 

I think most OBs and techs are not careful to explain what is actually happening and it causes undo stress in a pregnancy. They see now that it's a theoretical possibility (compared to a placenta clearly attached so far away from the cervix it is easy to see earlier in pregnancy.) Later, as the uterus expands almost to full term, they will be able to know for sure. If it happens they can handle it and a c-section is appropriate.

 

What does "a greater chance" mean specifically? A 9% increase? A 87% increase? The tech should have been better trained in conveying useful information.

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move each time? I found out that I have it again. I had it with my last pregnancy, but it moved by 30 weeks. The tech said this time there is a greater chance that it *won't* move and I'd need a c-section.

 

Have any of you had it move out of the way more than once?

 

I had this with 5 of my 7 pregnancies. It moved each time...except my 1rst, where it moved, but not enough....and I had a prolapsed umbilical cord and an emergency c-section. After that one, all my subsequent pg's were delivered regularly. I did have a lot of bleeding early on and had to remain on bedrest for about 16 weeks...OY!!!!!

 

Faithe

 

ETA after reading previos post, so, it didn't "move" but it ended up away from my cervix.

Edited by Mommyfaithe
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Yes, I've had placental previas the last two times. Both times they have "moved". With my last pregnancy, I went from having a full previa to no previa at all at around 26ish weeks. I had had some spotting up until 24 weeks....and had been warned that I would be on full hospital bedrest if I had a warning bleed. I was *much* relieved when the u/s showed that I no longer had that issue.

 

My ob has told me that in all likelihood that I will continue to have previas, and to expect to be on modified bedrest because of those + my history of subchorionic bleeding. I have been on either full or modified bedrests through my pregnancies. :(

 

:grouphug: me too. it was pretty awful, but I sure got a lot of homeschooling done since I was glued to the couch...

 

Faithe

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Placentas are attached by blood vessels and do not "move" to a new location. Imagine drawing a circle on a balloon near the top. As you inflate the balloon, the circle appears to "move" but it's location on the balloon has never changed. This is exactly what happens with these all too frequent premature diagnoses. There's just no way they can know this until later in the pregnancy if your placenta attached to and grew on your cervix.

 

I think most OBs and techs are not careful to explain what is actually happening and it causes undo stress in a pregnancy. They see now that it's a theoretical possibility (compared to a placenta clearly attached so far away from the cervix it is easy to see earlier in pregnancy.) Later, as the uterus expands almost to full term, they will be able to know for sure. If it happens they can handle it and a c-section is appropriate.

 

What does "a greater chance" mean specifically? A 9% increase? A 87% increase? The tech should have been better trained in conveying useful information.

 

Very interesting. I agree, they should actually explain what you just did instead of causing undue stress. So, there is a good chance that the placenta will not be over the cervix later in pregnancy, since my 1st pp wasn't later in that pregnancy. Hmmm...not so concerned about a c/s now. More like, wait and see but nothing to worry about.

 

Thanks!!

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I have no idea what the actual chances are of a real full term placenta previa in your case but I'm glad you're not worrying about it. It's one of those things you can't do anything to avoid or change but you can rest assured if it happens you'll know ahead of time because they're already keeping an eye out for it and they can handle it.

 

If it were my pregnancy, I would ask my doctor what percentage of placenta previa diagnosis in early pregnancy remain a placenta previa diagnosis at full term requiring a scheduled c-section.

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