Working Placenta

Hi, I am thinking about having another baby soon and have a few questions. I was induced at 37 and 5 weeks with my daughter as an ultrasound showed that my placenta was not working properly anymore and she had in fact lost weight compared to an ultrasound at 34 weeks. When she was born, my placenta was "calcified" and looked "old" even though my dates were correct. One of the midwives said that I must have smoked and drank when I was pregnant (which was offensive) but I did neither! I just want to know what to do to stop this from happening again? BTW I ended up with a manual removed of my placenta and lost lots of blood. This won't happen again will it?
Thank you very much.

Hi,
Thank you for your enquiry. Sometimes the placenta stops working because the mother may have some underlying problem, such as, high blood pressure. Sometimes a cause cannot be found. You are at an increased risk of having problems again with your placenta but it may not happen. So it is really hard to predict if a cause could not be found. You may want to get a thorough health check to see if you are in good health and ensure that you have a healthy lifestyle, to try to minimise the risk of complications occurring.
Best wishes,
Alex.

<a href="http://www.nswmidwives.com.au/">NSW Midwives Association</a>
Note: This information is not designed to replace that of your health professional.