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#ICANsavelives
International Cesarean Awareness Network
Education, Support, & Advocacy for Birth Justice & Healing
During the month of October, ICAN focuses on bringing awareness to the condition of placenta accreta, when the placenta attaches too deeply into the uterine wall. Today, we are sharing a new organization assisting in the effort to reduce preventable accreta cases, the National Accreta Foundation.
Founded in April 2017, the Foundation is a non-profit corporation focused on eliminating preventable maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity due to placenta accreta. To achieve this goal, their work is using a two-prong approach: to reduce the rate of NTSV (Nulliparous Term Singleton Vertex) cesarean births and repeat cesarean births, as well as increasing the number of hospitals staffed and equipped to provide the appropriate care required for patients with previous cesareans and diagnosed cases of placenta accreta.
The foundation partners with federal, state, and local public health agencies and organizations, hospitals and health systems, medical and hospital associations, and insurance payers and purchasers to create multi-stakeholder agendas and strategies for the prevention, measurement, and safe management of placenta accreta. More detailed information can be found on their website here.
Kristen Terlizzi is a placenta percreta survivor and an advocate for maternal health and patient safety. She has discussed the risks of an accreta delivery as well as the significant medical expertise, coordination, and cost needed at various events for medical students, hospital leadership, perinatal quality collaboratives, medical conferences, and blood banks. She is a recurring guest lecturer at Stanford University School of Medicine, Department of Obstetrics.
Jill Arnold is a consultant specializing in cesarean data reporting and consumer engagement with maternity data. In addition to working as a consultant to Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center, Jill is an Editorial Board Member of the Institute for Perinatal Quality Improvement, a member of the Lamaze International Board of Directors and an Expert Consultant to the Delivery Decisions Initiative at Harvard’s Ariadne Labs.
Kristen shares her story:
These women are dedicating their time to preventing other women from unnecessarily experiencing placenta accreta and developing strategies for perinatal regionalization of care for women with a previous cesarean birth. Learn more about the foundation at:
#ICANsavelives
Placenta accreta poses a real risk to losing both mother and child during delivery. Today ICAN honors and remembers those lost to accreta. Thank you to the families that have chosen to share their loved ones’ stories. ICAN will always remember the loved one lost: the children that lost their mother, the mom that lost her baby, and the difficult journey the families travel.
Lauren Elizabeth Bernhardt Gunderson
~ Mother of four beautiful children, wonderful sister, daughter, wife, and friend.
Lauren’s favorite foods were Mexican, chocolate ice cream, peanut butter kiss cookies, and yellow cake with chocolate frosting. She married the love of her life, her Prince Charming. She loved to fish, shop, and spend time with her family. Lauren could always make you laugh and bring a smile to your face when you were down.
When Lauren became pregnant with her fourth child, she told us she had placenta accreta and would have to have a hysterectomy once the baby was delivered. We had no idea what accreta was or the impact it was going to have in the days to come. Lauren told the family that the worst case scenario would be that she could die but she had a team of doctors that would take care of her and all would be okay. She was put on bedrest in the hospital and told that she would not go home until the baby was born. When Lauren was admitted to the hospital, she had no idea, nor did the family, of the life change that was going to happen within the next couple of weeks.
Almost two months early, Lauren was told that the baby was going to have to be delivered. After she was taken back to delivery, the family anxiously waited to hear about the baby and how Lauren was doing. After a long wait, her husband, Tim, came out to let the family know that the baby boy was here and named Traesyn Alan but Lauren was not doing as well. After some additional time, the doctor came out and stated that they had done everything they could do but, due to the circumstances of the placenta accreta, Lauren had passed away. The doctor was speechless and truly didn’t know what to say – this was his first death due to accreta. The family was devastated. We made calls until the wee hours of the morning and then waited to say our goodbyes to our precious Lauren. Our hearts were broken. Our lives would never be the same.
Lauren chose to give her life for her new baby. The four beautiful children that she had will now live with memories of her that the family carries.
Since Lauren has passed away, we have learned a lot about accreta and try to get the word out. Our family has always been close but now we are even closer. We hug each other a little tighter and share all the memories we can of our precious Lauren. Remember: Yesterday is a memory. Today is a gift. Tomorrow is not promised. Please spread awareness of placenta accreta and help families understand the seriousness of it, if you can.
Lauren is thought of every second of every day and she is never forgotten. Her children are our special gift that she has left us and we enjoy them each and every day!
God Bless You All ~ The Bernhardt-Gunderson Families
#ICANsavelives
By Jennifer Degl, May 8, 2016
I wish I could remember, but I can’t.
The day my daughter was born was one of the worst and best days in my life — a day that almost ended my life — and I can’t remember much of it at all.
After spending six weeks in and out (mostly in) of the hospital — I went into labor sometime after 1:00 a.m. on May 12, 2012.
I was in the hospital because of a severe case of placenta accreta, which later turned into placenta percreta.
My daughter’s placenta implanted smack dab on my scar tissue from my previous C-sections and began to burrow through my uterus. She always has gone her own way!
This was detected early on in the pregnancy because I continued to experience light bleeding from about 4 weeks on. The problem was that since she was barely visible through ultrasound eyes, all we knew was that she implanted very low in my uterus and we would have to keep a close eye on where she went as she grew.
At 17 weeks gestation, I had a massive hemorrhage on a school field trip with my high school freshman. I was admitted to the local hospital where I required several units of blood to stay alive and pregnant. This ultrasound confirmed the suspicions of my obstetricians and they diagnosed me with 100 percent placenta previa.
Some women are diagnosed with partial placenta previa, which can be dangerous but can also resolve as the placenta and baby grow. I was told that mine would not resolve as it was a severe case.
I was told not to return to work and to stay off my feet. This was particularly difficult. At that time I had an almost 7-year-old, a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old boy at home to mother.
How could I mother from my bed? That’s for another blog post.
It turns out that not quite two weeks later, I had another massive hemorrhage as I walked from my bedroom to the bathroom (10 steps away) and I almost lost my life.
After a stay in the hospital and several units of blood transfused into my body — I was still pregnant and I was sent home with strict instructions not to leave my bed unless I had to use the bathroom.
That didn’t work for too long. About two weeks later — it happened again.
This hemorrhage was worse than the previous two. I was already very anemic and I immediately passed out on the floor. Luckily, I was able to call for help before I passed out. Once I arrived at the larger county hospital (with a trauma center) I was admitted and received countless bags of blood to replenish what my body was releasing.
No one was sure it would work, and most doctors were convinced I would go into labor and deliver my daughter at 21 weeks’ gestation.
I was not convinced.
That night, the ultrasound showed that my daughter (we found out she was a girl!) seemed unaffected by my health issues and was just hanging around in the womb. She was fine. In fact, the doctors told us the stress put on her during my bleeding episodes actually helps her lungs to develop because of the natural steroids released into both of our bloodstreams. Who would have thought?
Fast-forward two more weeks of living in my bed at a large county hospital to May 12, 2012 — the best and worst day of my life that I can barely remember.
Around midnight, I started to bleed heavily again (I had never stopped). I was being monitored and around 3:00 a.m. everything got worse.
This hemorrhage continued to get to the point of no return and to top it off, I went into labor. After a few attempts to prevent delivery, I was ordered to have an emergency C-section to deliver my baby.
She was at just 23 weeks’ gestation.
I barely remember this day. I was in such a state of denial and fear that I blocked out the hours leading up to her birth.
I was told there was a high possibility I would not survive and I used the hospital bedside phone to call my own cell phone so that I could leave my boys a goodbye message.
This was the worst day of my life — until it wasn’t!
I was forced to have a vertical C-section (after having three horizontal ones in the past) due to the immediate need to deliver. I lost my uterus in a hysterectomy because the placenta had actually grown through the walls of my uterus and attached to both my bowels and bladder and all three needed to be surgically separated. I was diagnosed with what is classified as a severe case of placenta percreta. I also needed over 30 units of blood in transfusions.
I was asleep for all of this.
I was asleep for the rest of that day and the next in the surgical intensive care unit (SICU) because of my surgery and related complications, and I don’t even remember my daughter being born. I never got to meet her that day (or the next).
I can say that May 12, 2012 was the best and worst day of my life because now that I can reflect upon it — I notice several changes in me — as a person and mother.
Once I knew I would live and that my daughter would live (this took a few months to be sure of) — I realized that I should not take the gift of life for granted.
We only get one.
My daughter fought for life and I did, too — and we won.
She spent 121 days in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and had over 30 blood transfusions, X-rays, surgical procedures and more — and now she is almost 4 years old and perfect. She is lucky and was left with very few side-effects from her extremely premature birth and four-month fight for life.
So you see, it doesn’t matter that I can’t remember the best and worst day of my life. Neither of us may remember the best and worst day of our lives, but we will know that we shared it. We have the rest of our lives to make sure we make memories that last longer than us.
Does it matter if I can’t remember the hours before my daughter’s birth and if I didn’t get to see her first breaths — if I get to see all the rest?
Look forward and not backward…
And by the way, I got to meet my daughter for the first time just before midnight on Mother’s Day that year. What a gift!
Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there!
We all make sacrifices for our children with the hopes that those sacrifices help them lead healthier and happier lives.
We don’t know how many breaths we have left, so let’s make them full of memories.
#ICANsavelives
Reposted with permission from TheMighty.com.
By The Well-Rounded Mama, September 4, 2013
Placenta Accreta, Part Two: Life-Threatening Complication of Prior Cesarean
Read the full article here.
Summary:
Placenta accreta is a very serious complication of pregnancy after cesarean. Bleeding after the first trimester is the most important symptom and should always be evaluated.
Although there are a number of risk factors for accreta, a prior cesarean is the most important. The risk is highest in women with multiple repeat cesareans, but accreta (and even percreta) sometimes occurs even after only one cesarean.
This is why it’s so important that non-indicated cesareans be avoided whenever possible.
#ICANsavelives
Reposted with permission from The Well-Rounded Mama.
References are on the original post here.
Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and Part Four of this series.