Baby A has posterior Placenta and Baby B has anterior - what does mean to me?

I'm very excited to get past my 10 week ultrasound and both babies are doing good. My next appointment is the NT scan on June 10th (12 weeks 5 days) I'm going to go nuts waiting that long (I've been used to 2 weeks). I am hoping to get a Doppler today though to tide me over. Hopefully I can hear at least one of their heartbeats. I also stop taking PIO today! YIKES!

SO - back to my question - Baby A's placenta is posterior and was pretty easy to get to with the ultrasound and to hear the heartbeat. Baby B's placenta is anterior and she really had to dig to get a good picture and pick up the heartbeat well. I just wasn't sure what the placenta's meant really. I read that with an anterior placenta you would have a harder time feeling them kick and getting the heartbeat to pick up. What if you have one that is posterior and one anterior?? Can you feel and hear the one that is posterior??? I don't want to freak out when I get the doppler and can't hear anything because of Baby B's placenta. Anyone have experience with this?? Thanks so much!!!

 

With my first, it was is in the back, so I was able to feel her relatively quickly (for a first). With my twins I had one in the back, one in the front, felt them quite early 16-17 weeks (the real thing, not "bubble feeling"). They never had trouble finding heart beats. I also knew actually where they were located so I told them where to look.

 

I had an anterior placenta with my son and I have one again with my twins. I did have a very hard time feeling my son, even though every u/s showed him kicking away! I am already having a hard time feeling the twins, but I am only 18 weeks now. The doctor never had an issue hearing my son's or the twin's heartbeats.

 

Mine are both anterior which means that they implanted at the front of the uterus instead of the back (posterior). I´ve had no complications with this and I doubt you will either. It is possible you may not feel the twin who has the anterior placenta as early as the other as it acts a bit like a buffer. Dont worry though, you´ll soon have a party starting in there in about 10 weeks or so!

My midwife has a problem locating baby boy´s HB but that´s because he escapes the Doppler (he hates it & tries to kick it away!! LOL!). Apart from that, no problems at all!!

Congrats on your pregnancy!

 

Posterior means the placenta is near the back of your uterus (near your spine) and anterior means it's in the front (closer to your bellybutton). It's hard to listen around an anterior placenta because it blocks most of the area that they listen through.

 

I had a posterior A and anterior B. I didn't try with a home doppler but the doctor had some trouble getting the heartbeats early in the pregnancy but it got easier the bigger they got.

 

Thank you so much everyone for the replies!! Very informative. My Doppler gets here on Tuesday so we'll see how it goes. Of course I order it over Memorial Day Weekend so I have to wait even longer. LOL Oh well - I'll be 10 weeks 5 days by then so maybe I'll have a better chance of picking them up. Thanks again!

 

Mine were the same, just opposite Baby A's placenta was anterior and B's was posterior. I rented a doppler for home use and in the beginning it was more difficult to pick up A's heartbeat b/c I got the placenta's blood flow instead (they sound different). As they got bigger though and grew larger than their placenta, it became easier to pick up the heartbeat.

I never had any difficulty feeling A kick, even though her placenta was in the way. In fact, she was the first one I felt move. But I have heard it is common (and normal!) to not feel that one as quickly simply b/c the placenta is blocking the sensations. Don't worry though, before long you will feel like a punching bag! :lol:

 

Mibe were also the same - B was anterior. The only thing was that I felt Maya (twin B) a little later/not as much at first. My doctor never did dopplers- said it is unreliable w/ twins so I had an u/s every 2 weeks.

 

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

I don't think my dr ever told me where my placentas were - but they did an ultrasound every visit and only bothered w/ the doppler once but could not distinguish between the two babies because their rates were so close!

 

I have the same issue. It took longer to feel the babies move from the outside but I was able to feel them from the inside from about week 20/21. The placenta does buffer the kicks depending on how high they are located, or so it was explained to me by my doctor. I feel a ton of kicking lower in my abdomen and not so much higher up. (The placentas are higher up and one in front and one in back.) Since I have ultrasounds every visit, they never used the doppler early on so I can't answer that question. My last visit (26 weeks) was the first without an u/s and he was able to pick them both up very easily at that point.
Try not to worry. With some practice you are sure to become a Doppler Master. Just try not to freak out at first when it is hard to pick up the heartbeats through the placenta in front. I have the Bebe sounds thingy and I can hear lots of whooshing from the blood through the placenta and kicking but not much in the way of heartbeats...