You don’t understand the power of the placenta until you think something’s gone awry with your unborn baby’s.
I know, I know. How silly of me not to realize the importance of the icky red organ. I always knew it provided the nutrients, oxygen and lifeblood to my baby, but what I didn’t know is that when you think something might be wrong-ish with it, just how dire that can be.
I don’t usually get so personal here, but what I experienced last week was so scary and dramatic that I am hoping to educate you with my good fortune.
Flashback to 20 week anatomical ultrasound: docs find a placenta previa. Not complete, but enough to put me on “pelvic rest” for now. (You can guess just what that means.) “Come back at 28 weeks to check it out again.”
Flash forward to last week, 29 weeks for follow up ultrasound.
“Well, good news is that the placenta moved, but now we are seeing blood vessels covering your cervix. This condition is called vasa previa. It’s pretty rare. Uhm… so you should be on modified bed rest, and we’ll get you in with the high risk OB specialists to get a second opinion and take it from there.”
Then of course I went and Googled vasa previa and went off the deep end. (Seriously, why do sites need to use the word “death” on the first page of their website?)
I couldn’t get in to see the high risk doctors until yesterday, when, in a blink of good fortune for my seemingly crappy/ dramatic pregnancy luck, I was told I was misdiagnosed. All is fine. Placenta moved, no blood vessels in the way of me delivering my child.
Behold the power of the placenta.
To tell you that this has given me a new lease on my pregnancy, and a new appreciation for the power of nature, second opinions, doctors who are smart and a wonderful support system in the event of imminent crisis would be understating it.
To tell you that being told I was allowed to workout again, and therefore went on a lululemon bender would not be overstating it.
G-d bless my placenta. I may just bury it in the backyard a la Matthew McConaughey.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
WOO HOO for placentas! And we can craft a nice placenta ritual.
Whew. Glad it all worked out. I may be inspired to have a new appreciation for mine in the labor & delivery room…although it’s totally like the sausage of the pregnancy isn’t it? It’s a really good thing for babe, but I don’t really want to worry about it, see it, be aware of delivering it…
Good news. Here’s wishing you a very boring rest-of-pregnancy.
I still remember when my midwife showed me mine. gerrroooossssssss
glad everything is ok.
Mine’s still in my freezer! I know you totally wanted to know that.
SO glad for good news.
Steph
Hey Steph, you going to have that placenta with some fava beans and a glass of chianti?
Thanks for all of the support!
I am really pleased for you that the second opinion ruled out VP (I hope they were right) and grateful that you put a link to our site in your posting. There’s a good reason we put the word “death” on the front page of our website, because every day around the world otherwise perfectly healthy babies are dying because a doctor did NOT diagnose vasa previa in time. You are one of the lucky ones, and while you had a scare for a while, you managed to have an educated doctor who recognised there may have been a problem and then had it ruled out. Many families are not so fortunate and many clinicians are not checking for it.
I sincerely hope that your second opinion was correct and I would urge you to follow up with a further scan at 32 weeks to make sure. Without sounding too negative I know women who lost their babies because they were told their VP had gone away and it hadn’t. It’s better to be safe than experience what I did and lose your baby at 39 +6.
Good luck with the remainder of your pregnancy.
Natasha Donnolley
Director
International Vasa Previa Foundation
Holy cow. Stomach drop. Sorry you had to go through that, even briefly.
So glad all is well. I have to admit that I am strangely fascinated by placentas. I have requested to see each of mine after I delivered because . . .I don’t know . . . it is such a strange yet powerful thing. But they do remind me of flank steak – which I no longer eat.
How’s that for a weird comment?
Thank GOD you and the baby are OK. Whew. Nothing like a misdiagnosis! Gah! You totally deserved that bender!
p.s. your new design looks awesome!
p.p.s. one of my good friends from college did the bury the placenta thing in her front yard
I’ve been on a blog reading and posting hiatus, but I am trying to re-enter the world of the living. SO sorry you had to go through that, but I am so happy the baby is doing well. My daughter was told she had hip dysplasia when she was about 6 months old. I, too, googled it and freaked out. Turns out, at her appt. the doctor said it was SO mild that she would never notice it. Information at our fingertips is wonderful…and absolutely frightening at the same time.
Oh, and about that placenta…when I was pregnant, we googled the various foods you can make with a placenta. Placenta pizza anyone? Dis-gus-ting.