Velamentous insertion of the umbilical cord - Page 2

[cbparis5]

A great place for information on umbilical cord issues is The Pregnancy Institute: http://www.preginst.com/

Cindy Paris
Mum to Nathan Elliot Paris ^i^
http://NathanParis.com

Secretary, International Vasa Previa Foundation
http://IVPF.org

[USAmma]

Here is the story of a dear on-line friend's baby. It's a hard story to read.
http://www.karuna.agrawalkids.com/story.html

[RedHen4]

This thread is old, but it seems as if people are still looking at it for information sometimes, so I thought I'd add my story. Here is the link to my (home)birth story. I also had a VCI, but we weren't at all aware of it until after the baby was born...but it explained a lot.

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...ght=noah+james

[Bestbirths]

I had a succenturiate placental lobe at my UC. No Velamentous insertion though. I was warned of the abnormality in dreams, and went to have an ultrasound. I thought there was a problem with the baby though. They didn't find anything. Even after I went to the hospital after hemmoraging, they gave me pit and sent me home with the lobe still inside. Passed it the next day, it was fist sized with a large vein coming off of it. Three weeks later I came near death from a uterine infection too. Had a d & c and some excellent abx's.

[BelgianSheepDog]

My daughter was born at home and the fact that there was a velamentous insertion of the cord was an incidental finding when they examined the placenta. Healthy pregnancy, uncomplicated labor. She also was born with a minor congenital heart defect, which is correlated with VCI (but there's no real theory as to which way causation would run, if there's causation at all between the two.) She's a big, healthy toddler now.

Vasa previa is scary, but not all VCIs result in vasa previa, by a long shot. The one thing I have taken away from all this is to NOT allow AROM in future pregnancies. I had SROM at home in a low-intervention birth and that's definitely a good thing!

[beautiful_mama]

ya know, I think thisis what I had during my last birth (VIC)...my sons cord ran along the outside not truly *into* the placenta.

My M/W had commented that had I had AROM he might have bled out. ( my membranes broke, btw when it head was almost completely out...)

I am so thankful that I have a hands off m/w because I was scheduled to deliver at an OB who waned to force induction on me at 40 weeks ( my son came on his own at 40 weeks 5 days...)

I had had a total placenta previa with him, DX at the 18 week U/s and was gone by 24 weeks...but was still low lying.

My ds is fine now,vibrant healthy, getting intomy cabinets as we speak *LOL*...my m/w said she knew why he had to come quick, and he did! one hour and 58 minutes from first contraction to birth.


Oh and I will add that I had massive bleeding right around the time of conception, or rather implantation, so much so that I had no idea I was even pg until I was almost 4 months along...

I have never bled like that with any of my other kids, ever, and I had that feeling the entire pg (once i found out) that something was wrong...too.

Does anyone know WHY this happens in some pg's? And if you have it one pg can it happen another time too?

just curious. Thanks for bumping this thread

[mamabearing]

Dic

I just wanted to explain to those who asked that anytime a person loses a huge amount of blood they are at risk for DIC. You lose clotting factors and the clotting cascade goes awry. It isn't just neonates, its moms or people who lose lots of blood in a trauma.

[mwherbs]

Originally Posted by mamabearing

I just wanted to explain to those who asked that anytime a person loses a huge amount of blood they are at risk for DIC. You lose clotting factors and the clotting cascade goes awry. It isn't just neonates, its moms or people who lose lots of blood in a trauma.

I was just going to reply with a similar answer- DIC from venous collapse triggers some clotting in the circ system - that also triggers the anti-clotting actions that every healthy clot has- but instead of helping anything what it does is end up circulating anti-clot factors

[Bestbirths]

I remember when I was in midwifery school and read about DIC...and after researching every other complication that could happen to someone in pregnancy or labor was...ok...DIC wins the prize as the worst possible sounding thing that could EVER happen to anyone.

[Vancouver Mommy]

I had a velementous insertion with my son seven months ago. I had a homebirth which was beautiful and baby was never in distress. Shortly after the birth the midwife told me that the placenta was not coming out and that my cervix had closed so they were going to try and gently guide it out. At that point one of the vessels came detatched and I started bleeding quite heavily. I was transferred to the hospital for a manual removal of my placenta. And by manual I mean the resident's hand was right inside my uterus. Luckily the OB was able to talk the resident into removing it by hand, as she wanted to take me to the OR. I don't think these two things (VCI and retained placenta) were linked, but the combined effect was pretty messy. That being said, the babe was not directly affected (except that he missed out on our quiet night at home and had to experience his first ambulance ride at one hour old).

[trystrid]

I had an emergency c-section at 36 weeks. (I had woken up to find myself bleeding very heavily and called an ambulance). Doctors found velamentous insertion of the umbilical cord and a succenturiate lobe. No one knows what triggered the rupture. DD had perinatal hypovolemic shock and had to be in the NICU for a while, required blood transfusions, etc... but never had to be resuscitated, thankfully. The pathology report on the placenta was inconclusive but there is mention of vasa previa with a question mark next to it...
I realize this is an old thread but I have just recently received a copy of my medical records and I was looking on MDC for any mention of this "condition".

[Bestbirths]

trystrid,

I just wonder if you went through any trauma during the pregnancy, because I did and I wondered if there is a connection between sucenturiate placenta and trauma?

Shelly

[trystrid]

No, I didn't. No falls or accidents. I'm sure I may have bumped my belly a few times towards the end, but nothing that caused any kind of pain. I did, however, have some light bleeding in my 7th week (for one day).

[Gilby]

Wow. I had never heard of that.

[Jaimep]

I wanted to bump up this thread because I just had my beautiful healthy son a week and a half ago.

This was my first birth at home. Also my first pregnancy to NOT have an Ultrasound. Pregnancy and birth were amazing and totally uncomplicated. We found out while examining the placenta that it was a VIC. I had never heard of it before. Actually I knew it was unusual but didn't know what it was until I posted a picture of it on my AP board. A Doula friend enlightened me.

I feel VERY lucky and blessed that my son is alive and healthy and well.

We were surprised that he was 8 days early and about 1.5 lbs less than my other two children. So maybe this is the explanation for that.

Again, I am SOO glad I listened to my heart and had midwife care and a homebirth. At the hospital I might have had my membranes ruptured, or been asked to have a c-section because of this issue. When clearly we are one of the cases where nothing special was needed.

[Bestbirths]

Go Jaime! I am so happy for you and so glad you got to have the birth you wanted, and everyone is doing so great! I knew what VIC was when I talked to you on the phone but I didn't want to freak you out by going "oh my god" or anything so that you could just enjoy your baby and not worry about what "could have" happened. So I didn't say anything, but now that someone else said something, I was thinking "oh my God" when you told me that.

I think waters should never be purposely broken at births. I disagree with that practice and one of the reasons for this is we never know when someone could have a VIC and membrane rupture could cause a complication.

I am glad you didn't have any complications from your VIC. If he is a little smaller because of it, nursing will fatten him right up.

It is great to hear stories of births with complications that are handled in a natural and normal way!

Congratulations, again Jaime!
::::: champagne:

[sillynika]

Originally Posted by doulamom7

Does anyone know WHY this happens in some pg's? And if you have it one pg can it happen another time too?

just curious. Thanks for bumping this thread

My understanding is that there is a richer blood supply at the top of the uterus than at the bottom and the placenta will 'grow' toward that side, which is why a low lying placenta is less common...but the more pregnancies you have it is harder for them to find a good unused spot up top so they are more likely to pick a low lying area. This is their theory why placenta previa chances increase with increasing number of pregnancies. As your pregnancy progresses the placenta grows up toward the richer blood supply at the top of the uterus, but if the cord was implanted very low it can end up with a VCI or vasa previa as the placenta moves away.

I may be off on some of that, since this pregnancy I have placenta previa and not VCI or VP, but from my research that is what I have gathered.

[trystrid]

:

Also, previous uterine surgery and scarring can also increase your chances of having VCI and/or Vasa Previa.

[JavaFinch]

My DD had vasa previa (along with some other things, including a true knot and circumvallate placenta) that was only discovered after my persistence. The reason I was so persistent is because I conceived with IVF and I had a low-lying placenta, and I read that those two put together put me at a 10-fold higher risk of having VP, and I needed to be SURE I didn't have it. Thankfully I did persist to make sure someone who KNEW what they were doing look at my u/s since I had more than 1 person give me the impression that they didn't know what they were looking for. On my final scan to check my placenta it appeared to be 2 cm away from my cervix, far enough that my doctor would have gone forward with a trial of a vaginal birth, but I asked her to do a vaginal color doppler and you could see colors pulsing and I actually asked her what that was, she said she didn't "THINK" it was anything. I asked her if I should see a specialist. She said she'd take some pictures to have the radiologist look at. The next day I got a call from my OB saying the radiologist thinks I have VP. He sends me to a perinatologist who confirms it and I am admitted that day (I was 35 weeks by this point) and my c-section was that Friday. Now this is all after I got totally blown off at my Level II u/s at 20 weeks when I tried to get VP ruled out - I won't go into that whole experience but let me just say it's VERY frustrating to have to educate your own doctors, to have to actually POINT OUT VP to an u/s tech (who I will say SEEMED like she knew what she was doing on all the standard stuff but just not VP)

Anyway, I now have a copy of my pathology report that lists VP, VCI, circumvallate placenta, infarctions and a true knot and I seriously get sick to my stomach thinking of all the what-ifs. My DD is so very dear to me. Luckily I'm so very happy right now that I just haven't made the time to have any kind of PTSD over this, because I truly could let it get to me.

Anyway, sorry to ramble, but the moral of the story is: If you get pg via IVF realize that your risks are 10-fold for VP! Still unlikely (about 1 in 300) but if you have a low-lying placenta PLUS it was an IVF pg make SURE SURE SURE you get absolute confirmation via vaginal color doppler by a COMPETENT person that you do not have VP.

[Vancouver Mommy]

I had a vci homebirth. The birth part was great, but things got kinda crazy due to a retained placenta.

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...129&highlight=