?placenta accreta

Hi,

I am 6 weeks post having my first child, and have restarted bleeding. I stopped for about a week, and it restarted on sunday, bright red. they thought it might be my period starting. but this morning i found some tissue on my toilet paper when i wiped, so i went and had a pelvic ultrasound. i have also been having mild cramping.

while she was ultrasounding me she had a weird look on her face so i asked if there was anything there, she said she wasnt allowed to tell me but that there was a lighter area on my uterus that wasnt supposed to be there. which is probably some placenta left behind. now after my delivery they had difficulty removing the placenta, and then after i had my stitches done the dr did a lot of heavy and hard massaging of my uterus to try and expel the placenta.

Now i am worried. as the ultrasound machine was having issues so they wont be able to print pictures til tomorrow. then i am not sure what will happen. i have been reading online and it appears common to have a hysterectomy as a complication of this condition. which is truly upsetting and i am going to stress about it until tomorrow and dont know what to do. i dont want to have a hysterectomy as i was hoping to give my son a little brother or sister in the near future. i am only 27 and totally freaked out.

Has there been mentioned its possible that you have placenta accreta? I would really doubt you do as it would be highly unlikely for the placenta to be removed after delivery even with difficulty and it most likely would have been picked up just after birth. It is very possible you have retained products or a piece of placenta that is still in there. If so depending on the size and if your experiencing complications (like sign of infection, heavy bleeding etc) they can either remove it by a D&C or see if nature will expell it on its own.

One of the treatments for accreta is to leave the roots of the placenta in the wall of the uterus (after removing the bulk of it) and allow nature to get rid of it over time. The older it gets it tends to break down and be expelled or else reabsorbed into your body. This is done to maintain fertility for future pregnancies and has quite a high success rate.

Having retained products after having a bub is fairly common. I hope you get answers soon so you know exactly what is going on.

It sounds like the Dr had a tricky time removing the placenta which could be because he didn't wait long enough. When this happens there is a higher chance that the placenta will not come away complete and part of it is still in there. Most women will pass this within a few days of birth but not always.

thanks mildez, yes it is actually only a retained bit of placenta not the whole thing. which is either left in place for body to dispel or a D&C. im not really at risk of hysterectomy unless the bleeding becomes so heavy that they have to remove it to stop the bleeding. i called the child and maternal health line and they calmed my fears.

From what I understand, the hysterectomy with placenta accreta occurs mostly as an emergency situation during or immediately after delivery when they can't stop the bleeding. HTH