low placenta

Just had my US at 19 weeks and was told that my placenta was low, not to
worry and I should have it checked again at the end of my 2nd trimester.
After reading about it a bit, I found that it is still early in the
pregnancy and that the placenta usually moves along and it is no longer an
issue. But I also ready about the condition Placenta Previa. Has anyone
else had this experience?

kathy wrote:
Just had my US at 19 weeks and was told that my placenta was low, not to
worry and I should have it checked again at the end of my 2nd trimester.
After reading about it a bit, I found that it is still early in the
pregnancy and that the placenta usually moves along and it is no longer an
issue. But I also ready about the condition Placenta Previa. Has anyone
else had this experience?

a lady had it stay low not all that long ago, she'd had 4 normal
deliveries, so it was rather frustrating for her, she had a pretty bad
bleed at 37 weeks, so it was emergency c-section then, rather than the
scheduled on a couple of weeks later, she pops in from time to time, but
I guess she's busy with her little one! Other than that over the time
I've been around, I'm pretty sure everyone that has had a problem
flagged has been fine at a later scan - I think the quoted rate of later
scan showing no problems is over 90%.

Don't have a repeat scan too early if you still get a borderline result
you only end up with yet another rescan, though obviously if you have
bleeding or anything they'll want to check. It seems that transvaginal
ultrasound is more accurate, so if it does turn out to be low later on,
ask them to do that, also ask how far it is away from the edge of the
cervix, it can be completely over, touching the edge, or not quite
touching, with the latter two, you have more options - unfortunately,
when the placenta is low, however you do delivery there is more risk
than otherwise, bleeding can occur during a vaginal delivery, but
caesarean with a low lieing placenta has higher risk than a standard one.

http://www.fetalmedicine.ac.uk/lib/f...us/previa.html
is very concise, just gives you the definitions of the grades and the
rates that false positives occur with abdominal ultrasound. It's hard to
know exactly what to say at this stage and what to suggest you "do",
chances are it won't be an issue, but you don't want to get to 34 weeks
and find it is and have to start from scratch making a c-section birth
plan and whatnot. So it's probably wise to do preparation for c-section,
make yourself a c-section birth plan find out what choices you have and
so on, whilst also trying not to worry about it.

Cheers
Anne

kathy wrote:
Just had my US at 19 weeks and was told that my placenta was low, not to
worry and I should have it checked again at the end of my 2nd trimester.
After reading about it a bit, I found that it is still early in the
pregnancy and that the placenta usually moves along and it is no longer an
issue. But I also ready about the condition Placenta Previa. Has anyone
else had this experience?

Yes, lots and lots of people have had this experience
with routine ultrasound. It is not at all uncommon for the
placenta to be low at this point in pregnancy. Especially
when it is just "low" (rather than covering the os partially
or completely), it is very likely not to be an issue later
in pregnancy. It's not really that the placenta moves.
If you took an uninflated balloon and made a mark near the
neck, and then blew up the balloon, the mark would appear
to move, but really it's in the same place. It's just that
the expansion of the balloon naturally increases the
distance between all points on the surface. Frankly, it's
a bit mystifying that they even make a fuss over it, as
it is a non-issue the vast majority of the time. I think
it just scares people unnecessarily. Don't do the repeat
ultrasound too early, as you'll just risk the same situation
where it's really too early to tell if it will be an issue
at term.

Best wishes,
Ericka

Best wishes,
Ericka

Hi Kathy

When I was pregnant with Joanna I had a massive bleed and was kept in
hospital over night and they did a scan the next morning and it showed baby
was fine but my placenta was low and I was told excactly the same don't
worry about it for now as it could correct itself and we'll give you another
scan later on in the pregnancy. Sure enough it did correct itself and I went
on to have a healthy pregnancy. They even thought at the end of my pregnancy
that I might have pre eclampsia but even that turned to nothing in the end
so no I wouldnt stress about it for now but make sure you have a scan later
on.

april
"kathy" wrote in message
...
Just had my US at 19 weeks and was told that my placenta was low, not to
worry and I should have it checked again at the end of my 2nd trimester.
After reading about it a bit, I found that it is still early in the
pregnancy and that the placenta usually moves along and it is no longer an
issue. But I also ready about the condition Placenta Previa. Has anyone
else had this experience?

Frankly, it's
a bit mystifying that they even make a fuss over it, as
it is a non-issue the vast majority of the time.

I think it's because abdominal ultrasound has a moderate degree of error
in both directions for exact determination of position, even for
completely covering, there was still a 7% error in one study I saw (as
in 7% where it appeared to be completely covering were not later on),
with similar errors in the opposite direction. If a doctor is in the
camp of checking everything, then it is worth checking, you'll find the
vast majority of previas and at least expect sudden bleeds in the 3rd
trimester, rather than having to diagnose when the bleed occurs. You and
I both know routine ultrasound doesn't improve outcomes, but it's still
very widely done and I can see why if it's being done this is one of the
things looked for as the studies flagging unnecessary interventions in
this area are no stronger than in any other area.

Cheers
Anne

Anne Rogers wrote:
Frankly, it's
a bit mystifying that they even make a fuss over it, as
it is a non-issue the vast majority of the time.

I think it's because abdominal ultrasound has a moderate degree of error
in both directions for exact determination of position, even for
completely covering, there was still a 7% error in one study I saw (as
in 7% where it appeared to be completely covering were not later on),
with similar errors in the opposite direction. If a doctor is in the
camp of checking everything, then it is worth checking, you'll find the
vast majority of previas and at least expect sudden bleeds in the 3rd
trimester, rather than having to diagnose when the bleed occurs. You and
I both know routine ultrasound doesn't improve outcomes, but it's still
very widely done and I can see why if it's being done this is one of the
things looked for as the studies flagging unnecessary interventions in
this area are no stronger than in any other area.

But these things are not without cost in terms of
anxiety. I don't particularly mind that they look, or that
they make note, but whatever they're telling women causes
most of them to worry! And I suppose that's normal. Anything
not precisely textbook is likely to worry any pregnant mother,
no matter what her rational mind says. I don't really think
they ought to keep it secret either, but there has got to
be a better way of sharing this information that doesn't get
women so worried. (Whether the OP is worried or not, I've run
into plenty of women IRL who were very worried by these sorts
of results, so it seems a big enough issue that someone ought
to do something about it to me.)

Best wishes,
Ericka

But these things are not without cost in terms of
anxiety. I don't particularly mind that they look, or that
they make note, but whatever they're telling women causes
most of them to worry! And I suppose that's normal. Anything
not precisely textbook is likely to worry any pregnant mother,
no matter what her rational mind says. I don't really think
they ought to keep it secret either, but there has got to
be a better way of sharing this information that doesn't get
women so worried. (Whether the OP is worried or not, I've run
into plenty of women IRL who were very worried by these sorts
of results, so it seems a big enough issue that someone ought
to do something about it to me.)

I don't dispute at all that it worries people, these days, it's just not
very PC to not tell people things, and if you're going to have to
rescan, you probably can't avoid telling a women you plan to do that (if
you have facilities in the office you could do it on the fly, but I
don't know what the tolerance of that would be) and if you tell someone
you're going to rescan and don't tell them why, you probably don't get
that much difference in the anxiety levels and if you rescan everyone
then you add in all the problems of 3rd trimester ultrasound and create
more anxiety over the findings then. Having some reasonable information
sheets available might help and having different ones for different
grades not having them all on the same sheet.

Cheers
Anne