I gave birth to my first child 9mos ago and find myself still going over my experience in dealing with placental retention and need help putting the pieces together.
Background: My DD was born vaginally at 33.5 weeks after premature rupture of membranes. To make a long story short, after stalling at 8cm for 13 or so hours I received pitocin, which only provided minimal assistance to progress labor. As such, my midwife decided to complete dilation of my cervix manually while i was encouraged to push long before feeling any urge. After several more hours, my 5lb baby emerged with obvious trauma to her nose (which self resolved within days) which to me indicated that she experienced great pressure against some part of my pelvic bone. We did not receive any pain meds/epidural during labor and delivery. After an hour (while my DD and DH were in the NICU) my placenta had still not detached and I do not recall having any contractions following the birth. My midwife indicated that I had to make an urgent decision between surgical removal of the placenta under general anesthesia or manual extraction with stadol, and that I had to decide immediately. I chose manual extraction and it has to be the absolute worst pain I have ever experienced. I don't think the stadol did a damn thing.
My questions: What are some the causes of retained placenta? Does a history of D&E increase risk of placental retention? Is retained placenta seen more frequently in premature labor/delivery? Is my risk greater for future pregnancies b/c of my history? Are there ways to prevent this from happening in general?
Any answers or insight you can provide is so very much appreciated!
Background: My DD was born vaginally at 33.5 weeks after premature rupture of membranes. To make a long story short, after stalling at 8cm for 13 or so hours I received pitocin, which only provided minimal assistance to progress labor. As such, my midwife decided to complete dilation of my cervix manually while i was encouraged to push long before feeling any urge. After several more hours, my 5lb baby emerged with obvious trauma to her nose (which self resolved within days) which to me indicated that she experienced great pressure against some part of my pelvic bone. We did not receive any pain meds/epidural during labor and delivery. After an hour (while my DD and DH were in the NICU) my placenta had still not detached and I do not recall having any contractions following the birth. My midwife indicated that I had to make an urgent decision between surgical removal of the placenta under general anesthesia or manual extraction with stadol, and that I had to decide immediately. I chose manual extraction and it has to be the absolute worst pain I have ever experienced. I don't think the stadol did a damn thing.
My questions: What are some the causes of retained placenta? Does a history of D&E increase risk of placental retention? Is retained placenta seen more frequently in premature labor/delivery? Is my risk greater for future pregnancies b/c of my history? Are there ways to prevent this from happening in general?
Any answers or insight you can provide is so very much appreciated!
