Not Good News

When I went in for a check up at the OB last week, my doctor gave me some bad news. Right off the bat, she asked whether our ultrasound doctor had 'told us about the placenta' and my heart sank.

The doctor didn't name the condition, so it's still a little unclear to us whether she's got a 'marginal' or 'velamentous' insertion of the umbilical cord, but apparently, the cord is attached either to the side of the placenta or off of the side altogether instead of squarely in the middle where it ought to be.

The 'marginal' variety occurs in 7-9% of pregnancies and can potentially restrict the amount of blood the baby receives, leading to preterm and low birth weight babies, but is usually a non-issue.

A velamentous insertion is cause for a bit more concern because the umbilical cord attaches to the uterine wall before entering the placenta, which makes it more fragile. This occurs in only 1% of singleton pregnancies, but is more common with twins and triplets. Again, the blood restriction is a concern, and there's an increased risk of stillbirth since the cord is more likely to rupture.

Here's an illustration:
The cord in the middle is normal. Sounds like what I've got is either the one on the far right ('marginal insertion') or the far left ('velamentous insertion').

It seems as though the cord's blood vessels do not cross the cervix, which is good, because if that were the case I'd have a miscarriage if I went into labor. I think there's still a chance I'll end up requiring a c-section, but, well, we'll see.

That said, this babe is very much alive and kicking. In order to monitor the baby's growth, I'll be having extra ultrasounds (the next being on May 8th), but so far she's oversized if anything. Although I'm pretty certain she's just large, and not older than we thought, my OB adjusted my due date to July 30th (from August 5th) since her bones were measuring 21 weeks at my 20 week ultrasound. Even with her newly advanced age, she is in the 60th percentile. So, she does not at this point appear to be suffering from any real lack of nutrition.

Andrew is going to try to pick the brain of our ultrasound doctor this week, however all we can really do is wait, watch, and keep our fingers crossed. I was very upset at first (and I'm still certainly worried), but since we're seemingly powerless here I'm doing my best to accept it and move on. Allowing the fear and dread to overpower the joy and anticipation whenever this kid squirms inside me is just more than I can bear.

More to come, no doubt...