Why hello, pregnancy curve ball.

While I was very happy to find out that our latest child, still cooking, is a singleton, I did lament to the hubs that I would miss getting all the ultrasounds that we did with the twins.  Because of my awesome OB that I switched to after kicking first mediocre OB to the curb, we had a number of monitoring ultrasounds (for a total of nine, I believe) to make sure the girls were growing well and weren't at risk for complications.  So, since we're just having one this time, I expected that we would have just our initial dating ultrasound, and the anatomy scan.

I should just stop complaining.  Seriously.

We recently had our anatomy scan, and a few days later, I received a notification that I had new information posted to my electronic health record.  I went and looked and was surprised that they posted the ultrasound findings, as usually these results aren't posted until after my OB appointment to discuss the findings.  In reviewing the results, the findings included a finding of circumvallate placenta.  I had to google it, as I hadn't heard this one before.

Circumvallate placenta is apparently very rare, occurring in 1-2% of pregnancies. Because it is rare, it's hard to find a lot of information on it online.  Basically, in my totally uneducated understanding, the placenta implants too deeply, takes up too much room, and then curls in on itself to compensate, which results in less surface area for the baby.  There can be a number of complications arising from this.  Bleeding. Placental abruption.  Premature rupture of membranes. Premature birth. Growth restriction for the baby.

However, all this must be taken with a grain of salt, as it apparently can be quite difficult to definitively diagnose circumvallate placenta via ultrasound, and the only way to definitively diagnose is after birth.  Bleeding is quite common, and I haven't had any so far this pregnancy (knock on wood) so I'm hoping it is either a misdiagnosis or I have a less serious case. I'll update again after speaking with my OB - but I wanted to blog about this since it is SO difficult to find info about this condition.