I had an emergency c-section on April 1, 1998 due to Placenta Abruptia.

My official due date was 4/6. On March 31 I began having contractions.

They stayed at 20 minutes apart, every 20 minutes for a week. On Saturday,

March 28, I had a bit of blood. It stopped right away, and the dr. said

don't worry unless it happens again. Nothing Saturday, nothing Sunday. On

Monday I went to the dr. He found nothing wrong, and said I was 1 cm.

Since I'd been having contractions for almost a week, the baby seemed very

large for my hip bones (they thought he was over 8 pounds, and I am fairly

small), and I had a small amount of unknown bleeding, he said he wanted to

induce Wednesday, April 1. Well, Tuesday evening around 6:30 I began

bleeding very heavy. We rushed right to the hospital. I soaked through 5

extra heavy hospital pads in two hours. Again, the bleeding just stopped.

They checked the baby's heartbeat, which was good. They did an ultrasound,

and everything looked great. They could find no reason for the bleeding.

My dr. is very conservative. He did not want to do a c-section unless it

was absolutely necessary. He said stay the night in the hospital, just in

case, and we will try for the induction as scheduled in the morning.

Needless to say, I was very concerned and got no sleep. I did have some cool

pictures from the ultrasound to keep me company. And it really helped to

see the little guy moving around. Well, morning came with no more bleeding.

We began the pitocin at 7am. I began having contractions every 2-3 minutes.

By 10:00, I was still 1 cm. At 11:20 I began bleeding again. They finally

got hold of the dr. at 11:50, and that was it for him. He said, surgery

NOW. Since they could find no reason, they didn't want to take any chances.

So I was prepped, and taken upstairs. I got a spinal, my husband came in

the room, and Kyle Reid Hanson was born at 1:28pm, with apgars of 8 and 9.

He weighed 6.15, and was 20". There was blood in the sac, and when the dr.

examined everything inside, he said the placenta had begun to detach.

Placenta Abruptia. It just didn't show up on the ultrasound. We were very

lucky as Kyle had no problems. They took my son away after 5 minutes, my dh

went with him, and they told us both that I would be back in my room in

about an hour. Wrong. I began to hemorrhage in recovery. I don't remember

much, as they gave me something to knock me out. The only thing I know for

sure is from the time I got to the hospital Tuesday eve. until I got back to

my room after surgery I lost a total of about 5 pints of blood. Again, my

conservative dr. did not want to give blood unless he had no other choice.

They had two units standing ready, but at the critical moment, my blood

counts began to go back up. We spent 5 days in the hospital (a nightmare in

itself, with incompetent nurses). I had a lot of trouble feeding him as I

was weak from surgery, childbirth, blood loss, pain meds. and a liquid diet

for 4 days. Kyle lost a pound. I only had help for two days at home, then we

were on our own. It was very difficult. A few weeks later, I had my

gallbladder removed (complication from pregnancy). Again, no help. But we

muddled through. Finally, we are both healthy and happy. Kyle is up to 10.12

lbs, and I am feeling better. It's been a very stressful time, but we are

doing great!

Stephanie Hanson

sahrah