Post-Birth Complication: Retained Placenta
New mothers are in wonder of their bundle of joy. Giving birth to a happy, healthy baby is one of the greatest accomplishments. The last thing new mothers are thinking about when they meet their baby for the first time is complications.
Burt things can go wrong after your baby is born.
Whichever method of delivery you have, you will also have to deliver the placenta.
The placenta is the organ which develops in the uterus during pregnancy. It provides oxygen and other nutrients to the baby and it removes waste products from your baby’s blood while they grow in the womb. Once your baby is born, you don't need the placenta anymore.
In fact, leaving even small bits of placenta inside your body is dangerous and can be deadly.
Your doctor must inspect the placenta carefully after you deliver it. They need the expertise to tell if the placenta is intact. Specifically, they need to look at the placenta's network of blood vessels, and if there are any vessels not connected to anything, it is a sign that part of the placenta has not been delivered and is still inside your body.
It is fairly common to have small pieces of placenta remain attached to the uterus. If you've had a C-section, the scar gives placenta tissue something to latch onto. As long as your doctor knows that your placenta wasn't delivered intact (a condition called ‘retained placenta’), they can go in and remove it.
The problem arises when the doctor does not detect the problem and there is retained placenta.
Even the smallest pieces of placenta being retained can prevent your uterus from contracting in the usual way and as a result, your uterus continues to bleed, instead of healing.
This loss of blood may bring about the need for a blood transfusion, or you can bleed to death. That blood can also cause the tissue (remained placenta) to get infected and if the infection is left untreated for long enough, you can develop ‘toxic shock syndrome’, which is a condition that can cause high fevers, headaches, diarrhea, fainting, and in some instances death.
One of our clients found herself in a position with retained placenta. She developed such a severe infection that she needed further surgery to remove the remaining placenta tissue.
We sought the expert opinion of an obstetric expert who said that if the C-section surgeon had been more thorough when she inspected the placenta, our client could have avoided the significant pain and suffering she went through after her baby was born. We were successful in proving breach against the doctor and causation, and we were able to recover a not insubstantial amount of compensation for our client.
Retained placenta is a terrifying scenario, and one that should not happen.
