I am 31 years old and have two delightful daughters, Emily Rebecca aged 3 ½ years and Isabelle Constance aged 7 months. Both my birth experiences have been eventful! Isabelle was born at 33 weeks gestation due to heavy bleeding from a low-lying placenta - placenta previa. Placenta previa in my second pregnancy was diagnosed from numerous scans as early as 12 weeks into the pregnancy. Emily was born at 39 weeks by emergency caesarean due to vasa previa.
My pregnancy with Emily went really well. No sickness, no sciatica, nothing. In fact I joked that pregnancy was a ‘piece of cake’. I had no bleeding whatsoever until I was 38 weeks pregnant. It came like a bolt out of the blue and was a huge shock. I was at home, it was a Saturday afternoon and I was in the kitchen when I suddenly felt a warm liquid between my legs. I rushed to the toilet and saw so much blood, it was terrifying. I also passed an egg size clot but in my rush to phone the hospital I flushed the clot away. I was admitted to the labour ward at the local hospital straight away whereupon a Registrar examined me internally. The bleeding perplexed him and when we insisted I had lost a lot of blood and an egg size clot he said, “Blood does look a lot when it is down a toilet”. After an hour on labour ward I was moved to an antenatal ward for overnight observation – they concluded that I must have experienced a “very heavy show” and they predicted I would be in full labour within a few days. The bleeding ceased and I was sent home on the Sunday and told to take things easy.
The next few days I felt fine. I had mild period type pain but nothing painful. On the Wednesday evening (now 39 weeks), I went to bed early but woke suddenly at 1am. Again, I felt this warm liquid between my legs. I jumped up straight away, rushed to the toilet and saw more blood and passed another clot. This time I really did start to panic. I felt sick and was shaking uncontrollably. I knew it wasn’t right. I rang labour ward and they told me to get there straight away. On arrival I was examined internally by the Midwife who was just as perplexed by the bleeding as the Registrar on the Saturday. She then said I was to stay on the ante natal ward overnight and would be assessed in the morning. I got dressed and was just about to leave walk down to ante natal when a senior Registrar came in. She was disappointed to see me dressed and ready to leave and said she really wanted to break my waters. As it was my first pregnancy she said it would take hours so we “might as well make a start with it”. I looked at her very confused and in all honesty quite irritated. To this day I don’t really know what made me say ‘no’ but I said “If the baby is in no danger tonight then I would rather we wait until tomorrow morning before a decision is made”. That decision, however dramatic it may sound, saved Emily’s life.
At 2.30am I was just settling down on the ante natal ward when again I felt this warm liquid between my legs. I rang for the Midwife, she was horrified by the amount of blood and said I needed to be back on labour ward where I would get one to one care. I was wheeled back up to labour ward where I was monitored closely for the remainder of the night. The Midwife sat with me all night, checking the blood loss, talking through with me all of the endless possibilities for the cause of the bleeding. As far as I can recall I don’t think vasa previa was ever mentioned.
At 8.45am, the Senior Registrar examined me internally. It was rather a painful examination with my legs in stirrups. The blood loss during the examination was terrible, so much so that my husband was close to fainting. A metal instrument was also used. The Registrar looked confused and said, “Usually the top of a cervix is rubbery like a balloon. Your cervix is rough”. He then left the room, shortly to return with a Consultant Gynaecologist. The Consultant took one look at me and said “We would like to examine you more fully in theatre and if necessary perform an emergency caesarean”. Ever so quickly I was gowned up and taken to theatre. The Consultant conducted the same painful internal examination in theatre and concluded by shouting to the team of staff in the operating theatre “Get this baby out now. This baby may be anaemic, inform neonatal”. They conducted one last check of my baby’s heartbeat, which thankfully was ok and then, proceeded to deliver my daughter by emergency caesarean.
Emily Rebecca was born on 22 April 1999 at 10.35am. She weighed 7lb 6oz and was a very healthy pink looking baby. As soon as the Consultant was reassured the baby was fine, he checked the placenta. Obviously at the time I had no idea I had vasa previa all I saw was the Consultant taking the placenta to an annexe room. He had two or three student Dr’s with him and he was pointing to different parts of the placenta. They then proceeded to take photographs, which at the time I found rather amusing.
It was only when I was on the post natal ward recovering with my new beautiful daughter that I began to realise the enormity of what had happened. A few of the Midwives from labour ward came down to see me. One of them even said, “You do realise, you were very lucky don’t you? If you had allowed that Registrar to break your waters, your baby would have died”. The Registrar also came to see me and said, “I can’t believe it was vasa previa. That’s why I was unable to diagnose it, it is so rare”. My Community Midwife when signing me off at home also said that she had only ever experienced vasa previa the one time – 8 years ago, and the baby was still born.
At my six-week check at the hospital, my consultant confirmed that it was a rare condition and when I commented that photographs were taken he said “I’m not surprised, Consultants can work a lifetime without seeing vasa previa”.
Emily never suffered from her eventful birth. She is now a loveable, lively and cheeky three and a half year old who has a seven month baby sister whom she adores. We know that we are very lucky and appreciate that things could have worked out very different for us.