Medical Questions » Pregnancy Questions » Question No. 808
| Question: | I saw the placenta after I had my baby and it looked really yukky. It hurt almost as much to push this out as having the baby. Can you explain how this works and why is it necessary? |
| Answer: | The placenta is a special outgrowth of the foetus that is firmly attached to the inside of the mother' s womb. It has blood vessels that penetrate into the wall of the womb and interact with the mothers arteries and veins to enable the foetus to draw oxygen and food from the mother' s system and send waste ptoducts to the mother for removal.
The foetus is connected to the placenta by the umbilical cord, which contains three intertwined blood vessels (an artery and two veins) which convey nourishment from the mother to the foetus and waste products the other way. At birth, this is between 15 and 120 cm long and runs from the navel to the placenta, where the artery and veins it contains fan out to interact with the mother' s circulatory system. The mother' s and baby' s bloodstreams remain separate and do not mingle. Doctors will check the cord after birth, and if only one vein is ptesent instead of two, it is probable that the baby will have some hidden birth defect.
The placenta is a flat, circular organ consisting of a spongy network of blood vessels. It acts as a combined lung, liver, kidney and digestive tract for the developing foetus. Oxygen, nuttients, waste products and other substances (eg. alcohol and some drugs) can pass freely through the placenta from the bloodstream of the mother to the bloodstream of the foetus. Infections (particularly viruses such as German measles) may also pass to the foetus through the placenta.
Several minutes after the birth, the placenta (the afterbirth) is expelled by further contractions of the uterus, assisted by gentle traction on the cord by the doctor or midwife. This may be an uncomfortable experience, but is not normally painful.
|
|
|
