"low lying placenta" « Back to Group Discussions

[rozziemama]

Hi everyone. I've been holding off on posting about this because I feel like its kind of a bogus issue... but another ultrasound finding (besides the slightly short femurs) was that my placenta is low lying. Not previa at all. But "low lying."  No one seems willing to tell me just how low, what the actual distance is from my cervix, etc.

My Dr says she's sure it will be fine at 28 or so weeks.

But just in case... I"m wondering -- does anyone know if dr's/midwives have different views re: just how low a placenta is to make it too low to deliver vaginally?

Or any other BTDT to share?  I'm telling you, I'm feeling like I wish I could go back in time and decide never to have had any ultrasound. 

[shastalily]

At my 20 wk u/s the placenta was just under the distance they usually want it to be from the cervix (I think the guideline is 2 cm & mine was 1.9), but the midwife consulted with the OB and he was confident it was fine.  No follow up u/s were requested.  They said that the placenta usually grows away from the cervix as time goes on.  I hope everything is fine with you!

[rozziemama]

Thanks Shastalilly... I've yet another ultrasound at 28 weeks to see where the placenta is... I guess that's in a few weeks - not too long now. Fingers crossed it's migrated or moved or stretched up or whatever placentas do. (?!)

[JynxGirl]

I had a low lying placenta when I was pregnant with my daughter. It was full on placenta previa at 18 weeks and by 35 weeks when she was born, it was at my fundus. :) Placentas move around quite a bit. 

Yours should too. :) 

[lightheartedmom]

My best friend was told with her 3rd that she had low-lying/placenta previa at her 20wk ultrasound (and also that her baby had a heart defect that would need surgery right away after birth). By 34 weeks, the previa had totally resolved and the heart defect turned out to be a shadow. She has a very healthy, crazy 3yo who was born vaginally and without drugs and did NOT need surgery at birth.

I know that once you're told there might be something, its almost impossible not to worry...but try not to. Your placenta position is going to change and most likely it will grow away from the cervix more.

[rozziemama]

Just what I needed to hear - thank you! I love this DDC 

[Astraia]

I had a "low lying" placenta with my daughter. I was at a 2.1 or 2.2 (and their cut off for needing follow up ultrasounds is a 2) and no one was even remotely worried. I had a follow up ultrasound at 37 weeks for other (unnecessary) reasons, and it was well out of the way from then.

My sister is due June 7th with her first and was just diagnosed (is that the right word?) with a partial previa, but from some quick google searching it looks like in most cases even that clears up without too many problems.

I think you'll be just fine!



 

[rozziemama]

I had an awesome Dr appt this week - one of the doctors from my practice I'd not met yet - SHE WAS AWESOME!! She made me feel so much better about everything - the placenta, the femur thing (she essentially rolled her eyes and showed me the ultrasound results which no one had shown me before and told me she wasn't in the least concerned as the femur and numerous and head were all hovering around 50% at the last ultrasound).

anyway, she told me to reschedule the 28 week ultrasound for later on -- like march or even April because there was no harm in waiting longer and giving the uterus more time to grow, etc.

i am feeling much more relaxed.

also glucose came back normal that same day so I feel much happier, at peace.

Thanks for the support, everyone.

[Astraia]

Great news! Always good to have a good solid "oh for goodness sake" reaction to something like that - I love the eye roll! That would make me feel way better than any of the other things she said. Well, that and pushing the ultrasound back even further. I can't think of a way to make this post sound less weird, so I'm just going to leave it- it's hard to say, "I love when doctors eye roll!" without sound sarcastic, haha.

[rozziemama]

Haha. Totally ridiculous that I'm more impressed with my Dr's eye roll than anything else... But it really is helpful!

Originally Posted by Astraia 

Great news! Always good to have a good solid "oh for goodness sake" reaction to something like that - I love the eye roll! That would make me feel way better than any of the other things she said. Well, that and pushing the ultrasound back even further. I can't think of a way to make this post sound less weird, so I'm just going to leave it- it's hard to say, "I love when doctors eye roll!" without sound sarcastic, haha.

[Ruby2]

I'm sorry you're going through this stress, RozzieMama. Soooo glad you got reassurance from the people here and from the new doctor.

Rant warning...

WHY do they tell us all of these things when there's nothing anyone can do about it and 90% of the time everything looks fine on a later u/s? What is anyone gaining by putting pregnant women through this stress? I ranted at my midwife about this a little at my last appointment and her point was that if something was really wrong, she wanted to give us time to find and develop a relationship with a high-risk OB before my 3rd trimester. But really? I think I would rather know later for sure and save my body and poor baby from being put through this stress by having "inconclusive results" on a 20ish week u/s. Just my opinion! :-)

[rozziemama]

Agree completely could've written that rant myself

[rozziemama]

Hello again... So, of course I failed to reschedule my 28 week u/s, and went in today with fingers crossed the darn placenta had moved up or whatever it does... And it's still 1/2 inch away from cervix - so... 1.27 cm instead of the 2 cm they like it to be for a natural birth.

Mostly I'm just bummed out because this means I'm most definitely going to have YET ANOTHER u/s this pregnancy.  I asked the u/s tech point blank what this means - since it's not previa - does she see some practices who have different ideas about what constitutes "low lying"... and she told me, this means that it's for me to "duke it out" (her words) with my dr - they report the measurements, but stay neutral in the fight.

the u/s tech (I think she was the head technician, not a dr) told me that the placenta will probably get out of the way by the end. But that I shouldn't worry about anything because "what's the big deal, you'll just have a c-section if it doesn't" -- that attitude really makes me irritated. I don't WANT a c-section if the placenta isn't in the way of my cervix.  And yes, I get that her point is that there are worse problems and if this is all I have to worry about, then I should relax. But I feel like I've not been given the complete information on "low lying placentas", and wonder if there are any doctors/midwives out there who would just deliver at 1.27 cm from the cervix rather than the 2cm they are looking for. 2 cm seems somewhat arbitrary. Like, they just wanted to come up with a nice round # so they chose 2 cm as. 

Mostly just annoyed that I"ll be having another u/s. I should have rescheduled it.

ARGH.

[MeredithA]

I'm sorry you're having to deal with this and have another u/s!! The attitude of the tech bugs me too. SO many people think a c-section is no big deal and say things like that not even realizing that it would be a big deal to some moms-to-be and something they really would not want! Hopefully the next u/s will be a quick one and the placenta will have moved up a bit too. 

[rozziemama]

thanks Meredith. I guess the odds are in my favor that the placenta will get to 2 cm since it's really almost there already... I just hope that I'm not victim of a slightly inaccurate u/s measurement - I mean, is it possible that the placenta really is 2 cm and the u/s measured 1.27?  And to think, that could send me down a c-section route.

At least no one mentioned femurs to me today.  (they were probably keeping their mouths shut because I was already clearly frustrated)

[rozziemama]

Hi mamas - I thought i would close the loop on this since we all know folks come across our posts while googling for info (btdt) - had my 36 week ultrasound this morning and the placenta's out of the way! 2.7 cm!
I am so relieved! Baby is head down - good position - estimated weight is a whopping 7lbs 5 oz already, wowzers
Everyone told me the placenta would move out if the way (including my drs) but I was really pessimistic after so many frustrating ultrasounds. I am so thrilled right now!

[JynxGirl]

WOOOO!!!!! Congratulations!!!
 

[rozziemama]

Thanks I was so happy - btw they said my cervix is shortening too. I guess we are in the home stretch - feeling so thrilled that the placenta got out of the way for a natural birth.... Phew.

Originally Posted by JynxGirl 

WOOOO!!!!! Congratulations!!!