placenta previa

I'm not sure if this is the best place for this post......My sister is 19 weeks pregnant with twins ( I have 6 month old twins by the way!) She just found out that she has a complete previa. She has not been put on bedrest yet. I was wondering if there were others on here who are dealing with this same issue. How long have you been on bedrest? Is it strict bedrest? What has been your experience? What has been the outcome?

Thanks!
shannon

 

Not personal experience but two friends had this. One had strict hospital bedrest for about 12 weeks of her pregnancy with a few weeks of home bedrest. This was b/c she kept bleeding. My other friend was never on bed rest and had a relatively uneventful pregnancy. Both had c-sections around 36/37 weeks and both of these were singleton pregnancies. Good luck to your sister!

 

Shannon,
I went into the doctor at my 18 week appointment (the day we found out it's two girls...yay!)and they said my placenta was low lying and they would keep an eye on it. On the day I turned 19 weeks pregnant, everything changed. Let me start off by saying my pregnancy had been completely uneventful up until this point. I didn't even have the nausea in the first trimester. On the night of the 19th day, I went into my kitchen and blood poored out of me onto the floor. My husband rushed me to the hospital in what we thought was going to be the worst night of our lives. I was beside myself. I knew nothing about placenta previa so we automatically assumed we were losing the babies. Luckily, they hooked me up to monitors right away and the babies appeared to be fine. Apparently, as a teacher, I'm on my feet all day, and in my case, complete previa (it had changed to complete) caused this heavy bleeding. I was admitted to the hospital because I was contracting and was finally allowed to go home 3 days later. That happened on September 24th and I've been on bedrest ever since. Luckily, at a doctor's appointment yesterday they told me it looked like I now have marginal previa but they want me to stay on bedrest for 4 more weeks since staying off my feet is obviously doing the trick. Then they'll check again and determine if I can come off of it. I doubt they'll let me go back to work though.
As for your sister, let her know, if she hasn't heard this already, that it's not very common to bleed from complete previa until the 3rd trimester. That's why they're taking these precautions with me. Also, placenta previa tends to correct itself over the course of the pregnancy. Please let me know if you have any more questions. I'd be to share whatever I know with you.
Erin
P.S. If she ever feels cramping or sees bright red blood when she wipes, those are both signs she should go to the hospital to get checked out.

 

I found out I had a complete previa at my 20wk anatomy scan. I was very fortunate to never have any bleeding and therefore had no clue about the previa until my OB called me late at work the day of the u/s. I worked 12hr shifts as a nurse and was never placed on any sort of official lifting restriction (was on pelvic bedrest much to DH's dismay)or bedrest. At 32wks the previa had 'moved' completely - one benefit of a rapidly growing uterus . Ditto to PP, if your sister ever has any type of bleeding, especially bright red or cramping she needs to either see her OB or get to a hospital.

 

I, too, had a complete previa found at 18 weeks. I had a scan last week at just shy of 25 weeks and it had moved enough to be considered a low-lying placenta now instead of a previa. I thankfully haven't had any bleeding episodes. You just need to watch for things like bleeding and extra cramping but most of the time, they fix themselves.

I stressed out about it for a week and then just accepted that I couldn't do anything about it so why worry all the time.

 

I am only 18 weeks along but I also have complete placenta previa. They caught mine at 16 weeks. My OB said there is a good chance it will move as I gain weight the question is just how much it will move. My next ultrasound is in 3 weeks so I am eager to see if it has moved at all. I had some minor bleeding for a couple of days and the Dr. didn't put me on bedrest. He said to take it easy (HA! with a 1.5 yr. old and 3 yr. old yeah right!) and to take 3 one-hour breaks throughout the day to lay down. I believe that was because I was having contrations though, not because of the previa. It different with everyone, but if there is bleeding or cramping thats something to get checked out right away.