Placenta Accreta anyone?

[rennylee]

Hi, hoping to hear from anyone who's had or is going through pregnancy with the complication of placenta accreta / increta or percreta. I've just had my 20 week scan, this is #3 after having two previous c/s and my placenta is anterior and attached to my previous scar. At the scan they suspect 15% of the placenta has grown into the uterus muscle and I'm to have another ultrasound in 8 weeks and possibly an MRI after that if necessary. I know a hysterectomy is big possibility and that's upsetting for me :crying:(I'm 30yrs old and sort of had my heart set on 4 children). I'd like to hear from anyone who dealing with or dealt with it and is it safe to undergo an MRI whilst pregnant?

[GreenEyesBrownHair]

Hi RennyLee

I had placenta increta with my DD2 who is now 9 months old. She was a vbac after DD1 was born via a c/section due to breech presentation.

My 20w scan showed I had an amniotic band, but my Ob assured me there was nothing wrong. Although, because I wanted a vbac, I was to have another scan at 34w to see where the placenta was and what it was doing. Never was there a mention of placenta anything!

I went on to have my vbac and loved every minute of it. The drama started about an hour after birth when my placenta still hadnt detached. The Ob tried pulling on it, but the midwife was refused. They tried lots of things no avail...... 6 hours after birth I was in surgery under a GA having a D&C to clean it out (damn it, I woke up with a cathether and a drip - all the things I wanted to avoid with a vbac!!).

My Ob told me I haemorraged over 1.5L and a couple of days later I had a blood transfusion. After 3 days in hospital (I was meant to be going home that afternoon) I had a raging temperature. Every 4 hours my temp would hit 40 degrees so I stayed in hospital for another 3 days. Ob did ANOTHER D&C but still the infection lingered and I was on intravenous antibiotics for another week. At the height of the infection (septaecemia from the infected placenta) my temperature was 41 degrees and they threatened me with ICU, but in the end I stayed in maternity because bubs was still with me and it was better to get help from the midwives with the baby.

So, the bad points; I had to have more surgery than I wanted, I had to have a blood transfusion, I felt really ill for a few weeks and low energy for a few months, and I couldnt breastfeed as the placenta never let my body think the baby had been born and hence no milk came in.

BUT, the good points; I still have all my bits intact! My Ob has said the chances of more babies are small but not completely ruled out. And even though I wanted to be at home with my toddler, in between the temperature spikes it was nice to have someone else look after the food and cleaning and I didnt even have to make my bed. Of course I would never ask for that to occur when giving birth, but I did get to spend extra time bonding with my baby with no other (household) cares in the world.

I hope I'm not scaring you, thats not my intention. But I wanted to let you know how hard my ob worked to keep all my female bits, so it is possible. Oh, and I had an MRI after she was born but I dont know about them during pregnancy.

Anways, it can be scary, but on the bright side, you have advance knowledge of it happening. I hope there's no accreta/increat/percreta for you so you can have that other baby!

PM me if you want to talk outside of here!!

[rennylee]

Thanks for your message GreenEyesBrownHair! Fancy that, getting through your vbac to have all that happen and then not to be able to breastfeed, how utterly suckful!This mustn't be very common, it's hard to find anyone in Australia whose dealt with it. May I ask where you delivered and who your OB was?