When a Placenta Tries to Kill a Mother
How C-sections increase the risk of a rare and devastating disorder
It’s 10 a.m. on a Tuesday morning in a hospital conference room, and this not your average birthday planning committee. Here’s the invitation list for the multidisciplinary meeting to plan this Cesarean section:
- Maternal Fetal Medicine (that’s me), the high-risk obstetrics team
- Gynecologic oncology as the premier surgeons of the female pelvis, because we’re planning on performing a hysterectomy immediately after delivering the baby.
- Interventional radiology, because often we will do a small procedure to temporarily block blood flow to the uterus right before the surgery starts.
- Urology, because the bladder is right next to the uterus, and in this case, right next to the placenta, and may become damaged in the course of the surgery.
- Neonatal intensive care, because
