this is a placenta. it is what keeps the baby fed and breathing--via the umbilical cord--while in utero. it's an organ that the female body grows expressly for the baby then sheds after the baby is born (in what is called the afterbirth). well...at least it is SUPPOSED to come out....
yesterday i went to visit my friend katherine and her 4 week old baby, elijah.
elijah was born at 33 weeks gestation, in washington state, after his daddy did the ironman in idaho! everyone is fine (after some time in the NICU), and they are home in bklyn and getting used to life with a baby.
katherine is my second friend to have had a retained placenta. my placenta did not want to come out, and i was mad; i REALLY wanted to see it. minus the baby, i think it is one of the more amazing aspects of pregnancy. at one point in my pregnancy, i even planned on eating part of it. i was shocked when it refused to budge, b/c in all the birthing books and classes we took, nobody EVER mentioned a retained placenta. all three of us with this situation had totally natural births(no drugs, baby came out the vajayjay), and then---BAM! no placenta. katherine and i had to go into surgery and be knocked out in order to have our placentas removed, my friend cambria's midwife ripped hers out manually (which cambria claims was more agonizing than labor).
i asked my doula, who is now in midwifery school, if she had learned anything about this situation. she has several theories (too much vitamin E, past D&Cs from abortions or miscarriages, or shit happens!). but, if you have had a retained placenta once, you're more likely to have one again. ugh. the crazy thing is that both katherine and i would have died had we had these babies 100 years ago. the babies would have been fine, but we'd have become maternal mortality statistics. that is just mind numbing.
regardless, yesterday we have decided that "waiting for the placenta" would be a great band name. anyone else whose placenta decided to stay put, you're welcome to join!
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