One amazing organ that is vital to the pregnancy process is the placenta. It grows inside the uterus and serves as a link between the mother and her developing child, supplying all the nutrients the child needs to grow healthily.
Through the umbilical cord, this organ provides oxygen and nourishment to the fetus, serving as a lifeline. In the process, it keeps the mother and child safe by eliminating waste products from the baby’s blood.
The placenta resembles a flat, round disc when viewed visually. The placenta is necessary for a healthy pregnancy and a successful delivery, despite being transient.
The placenta, which connects the mother and unborn child, is a temporary organ that forms during pregnancy. It is essential for supplying the infant with nutrients and oxygen while eliminating waste. The placenta, which has a flat, round shape, is responsible for producing hormones that both support and shield the developing fetus from infection. It is removed from the mother’s body after delivery because it is no longer required.
- What is it?
- How is it born?
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What is it?
The placenta has a second, scientific name in medicine, which is what both doctors and laboring women refer to it as. This organ has a finite lifespan; it emerges, grows, ages, and eventually gets rejected. The placenta is only required for pregnancy. The "baby’s place" is no longer needed once the baby is born; it ends its own existence at that point.
The placenta looks like a flat cake, a round disk. During pregnancy, its thickness and structure change somewhat depending on the degree of maturity and some external and internal factors. The placenta is located on the wall of the uterus, it is the connecting link between two – the mother and the fetus. Through the placenta, the child receives oxygen, nutrition, and nutrients from the mother"s bloodstream. Here, everything that is no longer needed by the baby returns to the mother"s body: carbon dioxide, metabolic products. The placenta produces hormones that are important for maintaining pregnancy and stimulating labor. During pregnancy, the "baby"s place" serves as reliable protection for the baby.
Embryologists understand the term "afterbirth" to refer to various embryonic structures that emerge from the uterus during the last stages of labor, in addition to the placenta itself. This includes the placenta’s membranes and lobes as well as the portion of the umbilical cord that is next to it.
The "baby"s place" is formed from the day of implantation of the fertilized egg into the uterine cavity. The chorionic villi begin to grow into the endometrium, forming a complex structure. By the 12th week of pregnancy, the chorion becomes a young placenta. Normally, from the 35th-36th week of pregnancy, the placenta ages intensively, becomes depleted, and gradually loses its functions. At the time of birth, the weight of the placenta is on average about half a kilogram. The importance of the placenta during pregnancy is difficult to overestimate. Considering its functions, it becomes an irreplaceable temporary organ, without which or with severe pathologies of which bearing a child will be impossible.
How is it born?
In a typical birth, the placenta emerges after the child. Women enter the third stage of labor when they have already passed through the hardest part of the labor process and the baby is born, filling the delivery room with its first cry. Because the placenta’s rejection mechanism is innate in nature, in the event of no complications, the placenta emerges on its own. This occurs 20 minutes to 1 hour after the fetus is born.
The obstetrician and the woman are informed when the placenta is about to be born when contractions resume. Compared to pre-pushing and pushing, they are less painful. For entirely physiological reasons, the placenta starts to separate from the uterus after the baby exits the cavity; the uterine walls "sag" and the reproductive organ’s volume drastically reduces. The placenta finds it more difficult to cling to them. Furthermore, the disruption of fetoplacental blood flow occurs upon severing the umbilical cord, which links the fetus and placenta.
- the uterus softens and changes the angle of deviation to the right side (Schröder"s diagnostic sign);
- the part of the umbilical cord that comes out of the genital tract after the birth of the baby, compressed by the clamp, begins to become longer as the placenta descends from the place it occupied down to the exit from the uterus (Alfred"s sign);
- an unconscious and strong desire to push, almost the same as the woman experienced at the beginning of the pushing period of labor (Mikulich"s diagnostic sign).
There are additional obstetric indicators and techniques to ascertain placenta separation. Usually, the separation waiting period lasts no longer than two hours. The placenta is manually removed if it does not fall off naturally during this period.
This can occur in a variety of ways, contingent on the obstetrician’s preferred approach. The woman might be put under anesthesia or sedated with medication. The placenta must be manually separated, which is a crucial and challenging step that carries a risk of severe bleeding. The placenta firmly grows into the uterine tissue during the nine months of pregnancy, entwining the blood vessels. Ineffective separation can cause the uterine wall to sustain significant damage.
The following emergency techniques are most frequently used by obstetricians to remove the last.
- According to Abuladze – massage of the uterus through the stomach and through the vagina, followed by the capture of the abdominal wall behind the longitudinal fold and simultaneously request.
- According to Geter – massage of the bottom of the uterus with fists with gradual pressure and displacement of the placenta down.
- According to Krede-Lazarevich – the bottom of the uterus is wrapped in the right hand so that one finger remains on the front wall, the palm is at the bottom, and the rest of the fingers clamped the back of the reproductive organ. Afterwards, the remains of the placenta are “squeezed out” in this way.
An independent "children’s place" separation from the uterine wall, followed by a challenging last exit, is a requirement for all forms of manual departments. In the event that there is no placental abruption, the woman is given anesthesia and the placenta is manually detached and removed from the uterus.
The third stage of childbirth can present with a variety of complications. The most prevalent ones are placenta accreta, total accreta, and placenta remnants in the uterus.
The doctor uses antiseptic solutions to treat the vagina and uterus to prevent inflammatory diseases of the genital tract and uterus after the birth of the placenta, as well as to prevent postpartum hemorrhage, which can be fatal for a woman.
After being carefully examined from both the mother’s side, which is next to the uterus, and the baby’s side, which is the side of the umbilical cord attachment, the placenta is placed on a special tray. To ensure that nothing is left inside the uterus, the doctor will fold the placenta into pieces if there are tears in it, compromising its integrity.
| What is the placenta? | The placenta is an organ that develops during pregnancy. It connects the mother’s body to the developing baby, providing essential nutrients and oxygen. |
| What are its functions? | The placenta nourishes the baby by delivering oxygen and nutrients from the mother, removes waste products from the baby"s blood, and acts as a protective barrier against some infections. |
| What does it look like? | The placenta is a flat, round organ, typically about 22 cm in diameter and 2-3 cm thick, with a reddish-brown color. |
An important organ that is crucial to the development of the fetus during pregnancy is the placenta. It acts as a lifeline for the infant, taking in nutrients and oxygen while expelling waste. This guarantees a healthy environment for the baby’s growth and development.
The placenta not only provides nourishment but also serves as a barrier to shield the unborn child from dangerous substances. Additionally, it produces hormones that are essential for preserving pregnancy and promoting the growth of the unborn child.
We can better appreciate the placenta’s significance for the mother’s and the baby’s health when we are aware of its role. The placenta is an amazing organ that, despite being temporary, makes sure the baby has everything it needs to survive until delivery.
