Tuesday
Jul042006
Word Search - Velamentous Insertion
Tuesday, July 4, 2006 at 08:37PM 
The placenta of a twin birth - the left side was Twin A and he weighed 2 pounds more than Twin B (whose home was on the right). Notice Twin B's velamentous insertion - where the cord implants into the amniotic sac instead of the placenta proper. The blood vessels can be seen crawling up towards the umbilical cord. If the membranes had ruptured over any of the area that contained the vessels, the baby would have hemorrhaged. (In all these years, I have only heard of that happening a couple of times - one was a recent client.) 
Reader Comments (7)
THAT is SO cool!!!
Hh who will be attending a twin birth soon...
My good friend just gave birth to a still baby who had a velamentous insertion. I don't know all the details, but she had some serious pain with a few contractions and then nothing. When her water broke about 12 hours later it was full of blood. The baby died must of died soon after. She birthed the next day. It's sad when a perfect baby dies because of something so random. I hadn't heard that babies with undiagnosed VI ever lived to be born. I'm glad that some do.
This happened to me with my last birth. My midwives told me it's one of the reasons they NEVER rupture membranes. My water didn't break until my son was almost out.
Anon: I am so sorry for your friend. How very painful.
Was she birthing at home? When her water broke and she saw the blood, did she go into the hospital? Did they find the baby gone when she got there?
I will send loving healing thoughts for her.
Sandy: How wonderful you have such great midwives! Until very recently, I said I *never* rupture membranes, too. I keep forgetting to NOT say "never" because the Universe will show me exactly when that NEVER is going to turn into a SOMETIMES.
I am so happy for you, though... it's great your outcome was positive, too.
What an awesome picture. It shows so clearly.
My HB baby had a velamentous insertion in his placenta. I had never heard of it until my midwife showed it to me when she was looking the placenta over. She said one little kick in the wrong place could have been disastrous.
May I make a clarification?
A VCI is not the same as a vasa previa.
A VCI in a high, posterior placenta is low risk--since the amnion rarly ruptures up there. It's when that bare vessel/s is low, over or near the internal cervical os, that you have serious trouble! AROM would indeed, rip the baby's blood supply open. SROM is likely to as well. And, even before rupture of membranes, head compression of the vessel/s could be detrimental.
I have twins born at 29 weeks gestation because of twin A's vasa previa rupture. The condition had, thankfully, been diagnosed. So, when the vessel ruptured at home, I knew well just how urgent it was! In fact, his chance of survival was, no doubt, less than 1%.
He is a strong, well 2 year old today!
Bless the c-section that gave him and his twin to me!
"It only takes a moment to diagnose life"
The international vasa previa foundation