Oxytocin-didn't get it

[bjrose]

I had my both my girls at Coffs Harbour Health Campus & with both of them I was given the injection straight after birth & left to push the placenta out with my next contraction. I actually think it took 2 contractions with DD2.

When I had DS I had him at a different hospital & wasn't given the injection at all. Wasn't even offered it. Then the MV grabbed the cord & just started pulling at it. I could feel it & thought it wasn't right. I started pushing even though I hadn't had any contractions yet & forgot about it as I was a bit pre occupied with my son.

I later had a massive clot & when I got a nurse to come in she said 'Hm...looks a bit like placenta doesn't it?' Just flush it & walked out. ???

It would've been about 15 - 20 cm long & about 10 cm wide & around 5 cm thick - so pretty big.

When I told a friend about it last week she was concerned & told me to get checked out. I did have light bleeding til 9 weeks which I thought was odd, but it stopped & there's been nothing else.

What do you think?? Should I get checked out?

[Trillian]

It could have just been a clot and not retained product at all - they would still have checked the placenta to see if it was intact or not - that's a sizeable piece of placenta if that's what it was to not notice it missing at the time kwim? It isn't unusual to bleed for that long post partum either. have you had your AF since to know if it is normal for you or not? It will be hard to know what is going on if you haven't had your Af return yet, but you could ask your Dr for a scan to see if there is any build up in your uterus at all.

[bjrose]

Trillian - No I'm still bfing exclusively, so no AF yet.
I thought that was just a clot, but I've always been told to call someone if a clot is bigger than a lemon. I saw DD2's placenta & didn't think it looked like it, but figured the nurse knew what she was talking about.
The only thing said about the placenta was that it looked like I smoked even though I didn't.

[bjrose]

Isn't it wrong that she just started pulling on the cord with out any contractions though??
& are you supposed to have the needle, or is it just something that depends on the hospital??

[Alan]

Hi Bjrose
First let me say don’t worry, if anything was still left in your uterus you would have had some symptoms way before now.
With the injection it is very common for some women not to remember getting it. There is also a good chance that they forgot to give it. A third option would that the hospital you went to do nor routinely give it, although this would be very unusual. Pulling on the cord, although not the ideal way of birthing the placenta, is a common practice in hospitals. Pulling on the cord when you did not get the injection will not cause any more problems than it would have if you did get the injection.

[bjrose]

OK. Thanks Alan.
It was painful - well I didn't like the feeling of her pulling on it, but I was pretty sure everything was OK.
I always thought you had to wait til the contractions to birth the placenta - took about 30 minutes after the girls I think. It just felt so wrong the way she did it. If I had've known it'd happen that way I would've made sure I told them I didn't want it.

Oh well. You have to learn some things the hard way I guess. If I ever have any more kids I'll make sure I don't forget.