The Vasa Previa thing

Basically, what this means is that instead of being firmly attached to the middle of the placenta as is usually the case, the baby's umbilical cord is attached to the edge of the placenta - the edge that's covering my cervix. And the blood vessels attaching the cord to the placenta are exposed and vulnerable rather than completely encased by the umbilical cord. It all seems a bit tenuous and frightening, although clearly both the placenta and the cord have done their work well up through this point - our baby girl is healthy, growing, and seemingly unconcerned by any of this.

The problem with vasa previa usually occurs when labor begins. For women who have not been diagnosed prenatally and are unaware of the exposed blood vessels near or over the cervix, dilation of the cervix and/or rupture of the amniotic sac (water breaking) will break those blood vessels, which is disastrous and generally fatal for the baby - those blood vessels run between the baby's cord and the placenta, and carry baby's blood, not mama's blood. Obviously, since we know that I have the vasa previa, the doctors want to avoid dilation of the cervix or anything else that could result in damage to those blood vessels.

With the placenta previa, I'm more likely to have bleeding episodes (the bleeding from placenta previa is MY blood, not baby's), and that can trigger contractions and preterm labor. And the further I get in my pregnancy, obviously the more likely I am to have both contractions and cervical dilation. The goal at this point is to avoid preterm labor as long as possible (that basically involves praying, since there isn’t really anything I can do to prevent the bleeding episodes), and deliver the baby via c-section as soon as she is strong enough. We want to completely bypass the looming danger that comes with labor.

If there are future incidents of contractions that lead to active labor or any bleeding that seems to be from the baby and not me, that would be an emergency situation requiring an immediate surgical delivery. That is worst-case scenario, and what we are hoping to avoid. But if it does happen, the doctors are hoping that keeping me in the hospital means we would be able to act in time to save the baby, whereas in this type of emergency, if I had to travel from home, we would almost certainly not be in time.

So although I'm not looking forward to being in the hospital for the next few weeks, I feel a lot better here knowing that if anything happens we can act quickly.