Placenta Accreta – How to Deal with Placenta Accreta

Placenta accreta occurs when placenta attaches to the uterus wall too deeply and strongly. In order to receive nutrients and oxygen from the mother’s blood, placenta has to attach into the uterus wall, however, when this attachment is too deep, it is called placenta accreta.

In addition to low laying placenta and placenta previa that we already talked about, there are some other problems related to placenta and its position inside the uterus.

In 75% of all cases, placenta attachment to uterus is too deep, however, the uterus muscles are intact and placenta has not attached to them too. This is called placenta accreta.

In 15% of the cases, placenta goes even deeper and attaches to the uterus muscles too. This is called placenta increta which is the deeper shape of placenta accreta.

In less than 5% of the cases, placenta passes through the uterus wall and attaches even to the other organs like bladder.  This is the worst case which is called placenta percreta which is in fact the dangerous version of placenta accreta.

What cases placenta to have such an abnormal and unusual attachment to uterus wall and make placenta accreta?

The real cause of placenta accreta is unknown, but placenta previa and also the previous Cesarean sections can be the reasons and risk factors. Many of the placenta accreta cases are seen with mothers who already had several Cesarean sections or they have already been diagnosed with placenta previa.

Therefore when a mother is diagnosed with placenta previa during her pregnancy, through ultrasound or MRI, it has to be followed up with caution to make sure that there is no sign of placenta accreta or the other worse occurrences of placenta accreta like increta and percreta. In some of the cases hysterectomy is necessary to prevent any damage to the other organs.

Placenta Accreta Symptoms:

Vaginal bleeding during the last trimester as well as a placenta previa that has already been diagnosed through ultrasound or MRI are the symptoms indicating that a placenta accreta is also possible. Sometimes more hysterectomy is also necessary. However, placenta accreta symptoms may not be limited to that.

For the baby, premature delivery and its following problems is the most important concern for the mothers who are diagnosed with placenta accreta. Hemorrhaging during the delivery and detaching the placenta from the uterus wall is a life threatening problem for mothers with placenta accreta and more complicated cases like placenta increta and percreta.

Placenta Accreta Treatment:

Placenta accreta happens by itself and there is no way to prevent it. Accordingly there is no special treatment for it too. However, as placenta accreta attacks and damages uterus wall, you may be faced with some difficulties for the next pregnancies. Those who like to get pregnant again have to ask their doctors for the proper surgery to save most part of the uterus as much as possible.

Pregnancy after placenta accreta is possible, but it depends on the damage of the uterus. Hysterectomy sometimes is necessary and this may cause the uterus to be damaged deeply which makes the next pregnancy hard or impossible.