This is one mum's story of coping with and surviving Placenta Accreta, a rare complication of giving birth.

Aside from a random tick bite and an inguinal hernia that kept popping in and out, my pregnancy was fairly normal. I stopped work a week before I was due with the intention of cleaning the house, doing laundry, getting my car serviced and if time allowed, reading a book other than, "What to Expect When You're Expecting". My darling son however, had other plans. That Sunday night, at 39 weeks, my water broke.

My husband and I drove to the hospital full of giddy anticipation. "Wow, this is it!" I thought. I couldn't wait to hold this little creature who had been swimming around my belly for the past 9 months. Unfortunately my wait would be a bit longer. Although my water had broken, I was not dilated and my contractions were weak. It was a full moon that night and the hospital was slammed. I was left to wallow in soft labour for several hours.

At 8am the next morning I still wasn't dilated so they started the pitocin. The contractions came on quickly and by 6:15 that evening I was ready to push. After 17 minutes my beautiful baby boy was born, healthy and strong. I watched the nurses clean him up as my doctor worked on my placenta. I was so entranced with my son that I didn't realize something was wrong. My placenta wasn't budging.

"Don't worry, I've seen this before." My doctor said trying excruciatingly hard to keep the alarm from her face. "We're not going to push it." They gave me another epidural and felt around my insides for some give. Looking concerned and somewhat surprised, my doctor said, "We'll give you a shot of methotrexate and put you on heavy duty antibiotics to avoid an infection. You'll also have to take a drug called cytotek every 6-12 hours to keep your uterus contracted. I'm not going to do a hysterectomy."

"Can I breastfeed?" I asked.

"No." She responded. With that one word my world crashed around me. To me breastfeeding was one of the most important things of being a mother. It was the single biggest thing I was looking forward to as a new mother. I dreamt about it for 9 months, I couldn't believe it wasn't going to happen. I had no idea, that at the time, I was lucky to be alive.

"You have something called Placenta Accreta." Said my doctor. In between my sobs, "Placenta what?" It sounded like Placenta Creature to me, which was how I referred to it from that point on. My placenta had become a creature that had grabbed a hold of my uterus and wouldn't let go. At the risk of being to graphic, my doctor basically cut the cord and stuffed it back in. I was going to go home with my entire placenta still inside me.

That night, as they shot me up with chemotherapy and hemobate to control the haemorrhaging, my husband went home and searched the Internet for "Placenta Accreta". Very little came up, and the information that did was terrifying.

He called me in a panic, "Are you going to die?" "What? Of course not, I'm fine." "The internet says 10% of women who have this die." No one had said anything about dying. Now I was scared!

I started asking questions. Questions to which no one seemed to have the answer. "What causes this?" "What is the best way to treat this?" "How will I know when it comes out?" "Will it all come out at once?" "What will it look like?" "How long will it take?" "Am I going to die?"

The answer to everything, "We really don't know."

Looking back, I was lucky in that my doctor stood her ground. Even when her colleagues were telling her she was crazy for not doing a hysterectomy, she refused. Even when I begged her for fear I would haemorrhage to death without, she refused. "I would give my own sister the same treatment" she said, "you are to young to lose your uterus."

At my request, I was discharged within the normal 3-day time frame, full placenta still in tact and a haemoglobin level of 6. Needless to say, I was back within 3 days for a transfusion. Luckily, it was the only one I needed.

The following 12 weeks were really tough. Not only was I a new mom with all of the normal fears and anxiety, but I was also in a constant state of anticipation that my placenta would just fall out and I would start haemorrhaging again. The cytotek which probably kept me from haemorrhaging by contracting my uterus, also made me feel as though a bowling ball was crushing my cervix anytime I stood for more than 5 minutes. I also had constant fevers as a result of carrying a foreign substance in my body (once the baby is gone, the placenta is no longer welcome). I made weekly visits to the ob office to get my beta levels tested. Don't forget, since the placenta was still in tact, my body thought I was still pregnant. I wasn't able to breastfeed because of all the medication, but it didn't matter because my milk never came in.

My beta levels declined consistently though, which meant that the placenta was dying. The creature however, still wasn't letting go. Ultrasound after ultrasound showed a large mass of placental tissue filling my uterine cavity. Over time, two small pieces did come out. The bleeding stopped and the fevers became less frequent. I stopped the cytotek on my own and the pressure on my cervix went away. I was lucky again in that I was able to connect with a doctor via phone and email who had experience with Accreta. I call him my guardian angel doctor because without his support and optimism I'm not sure if I would have had the strength to see it through.

Finally, four months postpartum there was a significant difference in the size of the placenta. Icky as it may sound, most of it just reabsorbed into my body. I guess the creature never really had any intention on leaving after all.

In June of 2003, eight months postpartum, the placenta had shrunk to 1.5cm in diameter. Small and fairly insignificant the doctor decided to just leave it be until I "dare" to even think about getting pregnant again. At that time, they will go in and see how much damage was actually done and then I will have to decide whether I want to take the risk of it happening again.

There is so little information about Accreta, yet more and more women are experiencing this dangerous condition, some suffering from Percreta and Increta, which are even more serious than mine.

My hope is that with experience, the medical field will become more equipped and better prepared to diagnose and treat Accreta.

In the meantime, I have set up a Placenta Accreta Support Forum for those of us who feel like there is "no one else out there".

Jodi Silverman
Maternity Coach
www.coachjodi.com