Sandra's Story - Surviving undiagnosed Accreta

I had a great pregnancy. At approximately 6.30am on the 23^rd of October 1992 my water was leaking it didn’t break.  I was over due on my birth they believed as the dates kept changing. We rang the hospital and they said come in as I had Step B.  I had no contractions.  They induced me at the hospital at around 7.30am the process of contractions took a while and they put a heart monitor on my baby’s head.  After a few hours they gave me pethidine as the gas made me sick.  When it came to pushing it didn’t go well the pethidine had run out and they couldn’t give me any more as it was time to push. I pushed for 2 hours and 52 minutes (I read the report) my baby was face up and not moving through the birth canal and his heart rate became a concern. The doctor said I needed forceps and they had to give me a cut to give my baby more room. They got me all ready and I remember the force was so strong when they were pulling that the bed moved away from the wall.  Out came my baby facing me he was a chubby one with heaps of hair, Beautiful.  He was just over 9 pounds and 52 cm long. He was born at 10.52pm. Then that’s when it went downhill.  I remember them pulling on the placenta when all of a sudden I had the worse pain, I remember pleading with them to stop (I didn’t know at the time but my uterus had inverted and they were pushing it back in and it kept coming out with the placenta still attached) at this stage I became very restful, no pain and at peace.  There was a lot of movement in the room and then I remember the lights on the ceiling going fast as I pasted them on the bed.  I had surgery where they said I required 6 pints of blood. They took my uterus and stabilized me. The surgery took all night and into the morning.  The hospital didn’t have an ICU unit so they set me up in a birthing room with a one on one nurse and machines and tubes everywhere.  This was all because of placenta accreta.  Which was not known until I gave birth.  My cut was from my bellybutton to my pubic bone.  My son was taken to a children’s hospital for surgery as he had a small problem too.  He was there for a couple of days. I was in hospital for 2 weeks other complications were surgical infection, Bowel and bladder in shock and not working.  They had to remove some stitches so the infection could weep and intravenous antibiotics. I was still on iron tables when I went home.

Over the next 5 years I still had some problems because of the damage to my tummy.  I had incisional hernia twice which required major repair.  So twice for periods of months I was unable to hold my boy and on the last surgery I slept in an arm chair for 7 weeks.  My son had some minor medical problems which required doctor visits and treatment.

When my son was 8 I returned to school and worked hard and found a new career in working with children with special needs.  My son and I have been through a lot.  I am so proud of the young man that he is.  I now have 3 other boys in my life who also mean the world to me as does my son. I also have a very supportive partner.