Hi Christine, Congratulations on your pregnancy.

Have hesitated in replying - 'cause was hoping you'd get lots of differing replies from other mums to balance out my one. My uterus is an unusual shape as well. I was originally told (after an early ultrasound in pregnancy) that I had a bicornuate uterus, but during my caesarean my Ob told me it's actually a subseptate uterus.

At the time of being diagnosed with the bicornuate uterus (at 5 wks pregnant) my Ob said it most likely wouldn't cause me any problems - but to mentally prepare myself in case I needed to have a caesarean if the baby wasn't in the usual presentation. He said that it was by no means a foregone conclusion and that most people with subseptate/bicornuate uteruses have completely normal pregnancies and deliveries. He said that many don't even know they have a bicornuate/subseptate uterus until something goes wrong and a caesarean is performed.

I've only had one pregnancy so far and it has resulted in a gorgeous little boy. My baby was due in October this year but was born prematurely on 22 July. We're not quite sure whether the complications in this pregnancy were due to the shape of my uterus or just being a little unlucky, but my pregnancy was far from text book. I bled really heavily from week 5 of the pregnancy constantly until about week 21. At week 19 I sprung a little leak in the amniotic sac and started leaking (or should I say trickling) amnio fluid. I was placed on total bed/couch rest from this time in an effort to avoid the trickle becomming a total rupture. At week 24 I completely ruptured my amniotic sac and started to go into labour. Fortunately the contractions went away and I held off going into labour until week 29. Was hospitalised from the time my sac ruptured and ordered on even more strict bed rest (with limited toilet privileges only). At 29wks and 3 days I went back into labour but the contractions were distressing our baby so an emergency caesarean was performed. So far our little boy is putting in a huge fight and hanging in there cared for in an incubator with ventilation in the Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit.

My placenta fell apart when my Ob was trying to remove it and much of it was not functioning as a placenta. A lot of it was just fibrous mass. My Ob said part of the placenta had grown over the septum (the middle part of the heart shape) which isn't comprised of the usual uterine tissue and blood vessels - and that is most likely why it didn't function as proper placenta tissue. Our baby suffered growth restriction - due to not receiving optimal nutrition from the placenta. He weighed just 1010g (2pounds2ounces) at birth - rather than about 1400g which is usual for his gestational age. I am led to believe that if the pregnancy had implanted in a different part of my uterus things would have gone a bit differently.

Recovery from my caesarean has been really good. Of course I'd have preferred a full term vag birth - but at the end of the day it's a healthy baby that was my real preference. Now that I'm coming out the other side of the caesar, I can honestly say it was not big deal for me. My wound is healing really well and I am feeling pretty good.

Hope this information doesn't scare you. I am pleased to see you have had a pretty good pregnancy so far. Your baby must be due around the same time mine was - 'cause I'd have been 31 weeks pregnant now if I hadn't gone into labour early. Wishing you all the best with the pregnancy and a beautiful happy bouncing baby in October.