Low Lying Placenta

hey ya,

at my 20w scan on friday they expressed a wee bit of concern about the placenta lying right next to the cervix.. has anyone had this before and had it shift away as the baby grows or is it something i should be concerned about or anything i can do to try and prevent it moving across my cervix?

thanks, little bit worried!! i did ask my midwife she said it may shift but they will check again at 32 weeks..

Mine was sitting right against cervix at 18w5d scan, f/up scan 2 weeks later showed it had already moved clear of cervix. (with Jae obviously since I havent had anatomy scan for this one yet )

As Bowie said, when the uterus expands upwards, the placenta goes with it I think something like 80-90% of 'low-lying' placentas noted at anatomy scans have moved clear of cervix by the time a repeat scan is done.

Theres been a few threads on this in the past with lots of girls (myself included) who have had low lying placentas that have moved later on

Mine was about 1cm away from cervix - needed to be 2cm at 19 weeks scan. At 28 weeks it hadn't moved and then at 32weeks it had so we were all good. MW said 90% of time they move up. Had to have internal scans later on in pregnancy as sonographer couldn't see with bubs head in way - but they were fine.

I had a low lying placenta and it moved up perfectly fine So not a problem in the end

That's useful info about the internal scan Kelly!

I had this at 20 weeks, and didn't worry about it, but it was still there at 32 weeks and the MW started talking C-section. If it got to that stage, I was planning to make them do another scan at the very last minute just in case, but it moved by 36 weeks.

There is nothing you can do about it though, just hope!

good luck

Honey, panic not!

Like i wrote above i had low lying at 20w scan, i went for a second scan at 35 weeks and it was still much too low and i was told to come back in two weeks, and by 37 weeks it was clear enough to attempt a VB

The OB told me at the 35 week scan that its incredibly unlikely that it would move enough but my midwife told me that they're worriers and not to stress - and she was right!

I DO have some limitations though, no homebirth obviously and i've been advised to head straight for the hospital, no hanging out at home during the early stages for me. I'll have to have a lure in my hand and blood matches lined up just in case and i'm aware that an emergency c-section is a real possibility. But me and my midwife are confident and she said i'm all ok to labour in the water etc so no being strapped to a bed or anything.

Will keep my fingers tightly crossed you have a similar good result

ETA: says in my notes that i have type 1 placenta previa which is the least serious of them all.

Edited by bowie

thanks girls,

i think the thing i'm alsot worried about (apart from not being able to attempt vaginal birth) is that it wont be moved enough for me to birth at waitakere (they need 5cms clearance) i desperately do not want to go to north shore i cant stand the place!

but holy moly t-rex thats a lot of movement in the last few weeks! i'll tell baby to make sure she keeps an elbow on it to shove it out the way,

thanks for your story to LeeG, its good to know what all possible outcomes could be!

can i ask was your baby well engaged by 32 weeks? my midwife said something like because my baby is well engaged (her head is literally resting on my cervix for the last couple weeks) it means the placenta is out of the way enough for her head to get down there at least, so it might mean good things, but i'm not really so convinced about that, i just think she is trying to make me not fret :)

also, did you have any bleeds prior to you going into hospital? i have had four episodes of brown spotting which i attributed to the placenta as they couldnt find another cause, but it hasnt happened for about 5 weeks now..

sorry you dont have to answer those questions if you dont want to!

ooh yay thats good news!