I take no comfort in the fact that last weekend, my sister in law, who has
been struggling with low milk supply, had to have an emergency D & C due to
retained placenta - at 2 months postpartum.
* Her husband observed during the c-section that the placenta was friable
and heard the staff discuss "do you think we got it all"
* She was visited early on (from day 5 on, I believe) by an excellent LC
who suggested there were signs of retained placenta and recommended seeing
the OB, provided her with support in positioning, finally having to resort
to pumping and SNS with formula
* She spoke to me regularly, describing what to me sounded like (from
thousands of miles away) an inordinate amount of bleeding
* She was encouraged by both of us - repeatedly - to call her OB - who
said, no, it couldn't be, as she had no fever and no pain
* Again I encouraged her to go to the ER or to another OB when hers was out
of town...
* Her PEDIATRICIAN suggested she had retained placenta
* It finally got so stressful when I spoke to her, that I had to drop the
subject...after all, her doctor said everything was OK...
...2 months, a lot of crying by baby ("colic" or "allergic to your milk"),
a lot of crying by mom (who, of course was told was due to her "postpartum
depression" and her "emotional state")...she experienced a great deal of
abdominal pain at 3:00 am - emergency room - surgery - D & C.
She has not experienced an increase in milk supply (she has stopped trying
to pump - too stressed, and I imagine now very anemic).
So I'm writing this just to stress that yes, a mom can have retained
placenta while having none of the classic symptoms of fever or abdominal
pain or even heavy blood clots or "bleeding a pad an hour" ...
Jeanette Panchula
(A very sad aunt, indeed!)
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