Placenta Previa

The only negative thing that came out of our big u/s was finding out that I had a partial placenta previa. Placenta previa is a condition in which the placenta is sitting right over your cervix. This necessitates a c-section because vaginal delivery would cause the blood vessels in the placenta to rupture, resulting in excessive blood loss. Placenta previa is actually classified into 4 types:

Type I or low lying: The placenta encroaches the lower segment of the uterus but does not infringe on the cervical os.
Type II or marginal: The placenta touches, but does not cover, the top of the cervix.
Type III or partial: The placenta partially covers the top of the cervix
Type IV or complete: The placenta completely covers the top of the cervix

Image Source

While the placenta does not MOVE at all during pregnancy, the uterus does grow quite a bit. Consequently, often times, a partial placenta previa will "resolve" itself when the uterine isthmus (the narrow part of the uterus at the junction of the body of the uterus and cervix) grows/unfolds and forms the lower segment of the uterus. 90% of all partial placenta previa cases will resolve in this way by 28 weeks gestation.

Our perinatologist told us that there was no need for us to worry about being in the 10% group, and did not put me on pelvic rest (i.e. no sex). When you have placenta previa, you are definitely on pelvic rest and sometimes bed rest as well... with partial placenta previas, I guess it just depends on the doctor. But our doctor told us that I did not need to change a thing that I was doing and that we could just come back to recheck in about 10 weeks. Even though he told us not to worry, we left the office with a little bit of trepidation, wondering if I would be forced into having a c-section instead of the vaginal birth that I preferred... only time would tell...