Before birth the baby sits surrounded by liquor and inside your uterus. The baby is grown and kept alive by you using the most amazing organic process and the placenta. The fleshy part of the placenta is attached to your uterus by villi. These tiny hairlike structures provide maximum efficiency and contact with the mothers blood. It’s like the border between mother and baby.
Fleshy part of placenta uppermost in this picture
Shiny surface with cord and vessels, sits next to baby
The bag consist of two sparate membranes, The amnion and the Chorion. The Amnion has contact with the baby in the first few weeks and then as the liquor (fluid) inside increases moves to the outer edge and is stuck to the chorion which is the outer membrane attached to the uterus everywhere except where the placenta sits. This envelops your baby until birth.
the hole that the baby came through
this is the bag fleshy surface to mother and baby inside the bag
Once the placenta has separated after the birth, these pathways close off as the utertine muscles contract. As the placenta is leaving the uterus either the baby’s slide slips to the cervix and is expelled with all blood loss tucked inside the membranes (Shultz method); or the mothers side of the placenta arrives at the cervix first and the membranes then become striped off the wall following traction (Duncan method). This way is more common with controlled cord traction and is more likely to leave retained membranes.
The cord is usually about 50cm long (but this varies of course) and is mainly inserted into the centre of the placenta but not always. It can be inserted into the side of the placenta. This is called a Battledore insertion (Battledore was the name of a game which has evolved into badminton, the insertion of the cord makes the placenta look like this raquet). This is fairly common and has never been associated with a problem.
average length of cord
The cord can also be inserted into the membranes via blood vessels and this is called a velamentus insertion. These are very good reasons not to have someone pull out your placenta but where possible leave it to nature.
Normal insertion of the cord
Click to see the placenta prints.
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Hey Lisa
thanks for the great description of these pics…I was asleep by the time they were being taken and although DH gave me a pretty good run down of how everything works, your explanation is a little more thorough LOL
Fancy recognising them!!Thanks so much they are a fantastic set of pictures.
ah, i knew i recognised that clear plastic container!
Hi Lisa – I thought it was time that I let you know what a fantastic job I think you do in promoting homebirth and MIPP. I have been reading your blog for the last 6 months or more and just love it. Your blog has made me reconsider many aspects of pregnancy and childbirth. Thank you so much.
Narissa
I love this set of pictures for the placenta and the explanation given here. I took a short class on placentas once for continuing education. It was so fascinating. But can I say looking at the handling of the placenta without gloves does make me a bit squeemish.
I also loved your last post about the posterior position. Wonderful.
Hi Travelling midife, What makes you squeemish about no gloves. I have a long term relationship with my clients and I know their blood picture so I have no worries about that. What is the point of gloves in that case? I would of course use them If I were working on a busy labour ward with clients I have never met before.
I understand what you are saying about knowing your patients and feeling a sense of comfort not wearing gloves. It is certainly born out of my working with patients that get recurrent STD’s and even an undiagnosed HIV status we discovered half way through a labor. I am not judging, I am just saying it makes *ME* squeemish. Love the blog by the way. Please keep up the very interesting stories and pictures. I have been a midwife for 11 years and I still love to learn from my sisters and brothers out there who are birthing babies in all kinds of settings.
I’m loving your site, but I have to admit the lack of gloves did make me feel a but squeemish too.
Personally it’s the undiscovered things that we can’t test for that I would worry about (it wasn’t so long ago we didn’t know CJD existed).
Fab site though
Lisa
Where can I see a pic you presented in Adel? The one with the deceased twin?
Can I email you a pic of my most recent with suspected deceased baby #2 and #3??
You were awesome btw
It hasn’t been blogged. Maybe another post coming on placentae, Could I maybe use your pictures too?
absolutely. http://www.flickr.com/photos/30827403@N06/3980303328/
and
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30827403@N06/3980303226/in/photostream/