Vasa previa - next steps

Well, its official. I certainly do have vasa previa. We went to see the obs today and he gave me the ultrasound report confirming it.

LH came along as well so he could hear what the doctor had to say. He said the next step is to have another ultrasound at 28 weeks to see how things are looking. He said it is possible things will have moved around but we just have to wait and see.

He didn't want to commit to a management plan at the moment, but said an elective caesarian was definitely on the cards. He said this might be possible at 37 weeks or maybe earlier if there are other complications such as bleeding. He also said monitoring in hospital beforehand might happen dependiong on how things look.

He said that in 25 years of practicing obstetrics, it was the earliest diagnosis he had seen of vasa previa. I guess most are found when bleeding happens or worse, during labour. So I am one of the lucky ones.

He also reassured me that the vasa previa won't affect the babies' development in the uterus and it doesn't cause an increase in premature birth.

Apparently premature birth happens in 7% of cases, so it could happen to me, but at the moment, there's no reason to expect it.

My instructions from now until week 28 are no sexual intercourse and to go straight to the labour ward at the nearest hospital if there is any sign at all of red, fresh bleeding.

Since the baby isn't viable out of the womb yet, we don't have to think about going into labour so we are good to go away on our holiday at 24 weeks.

He did say that after 28 weeks, we need to be near a hospital but not to get too obsessive about this. He also said don't go away on holidays to central Aust or somewhere that there are no hospitals around. We weren't planning on it, so that's ok.

So its back to taking things one day at a time. I figure I may as well try to relax as much as I can during the next month since there isn't anything we can do, whatever happens. We will just take things as they come after that.

I feel reassured having talked to the obs about it. He knows exactly what the condition is and how to manage it. I think seeing how things go with the ultrasounds is a good plan.

Lovely husband didn't feel so reassured though. He was looking for a finalised plan of action, statistics of the likelihood of different things happening and so on. I said this isn't how doctors work. They like to have test results before they make plans and I am ok with that.

I am feeling more positive and we still both believe that E3 will survive and be fine. My main concern is managing the anxiety between now and then without driving myself over the edge with worry as time goes on.