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Low Platelets

Feebs76Feebs76
in My baby was born in Jun 2012
So fed up as have just got back from the mw and my bloods from last week are showing that my platelet levels are dropping. Grrrrr. This happened in my last pg and basically puts me in the high risk birth category as my blood may not clot if I bleed a lot or have to have surgery. I was so hoping last time was a one off as I was fine with DD1.



Also means fortnightly blood test for the next 12 weeks.



Boooooo image

Replies

  • ruthiespoonruthiespoon
    Oh bummer. Does it mess up your birth plan somewhat too? Hope not x
  • Feebs76Feebs76
    I'm not sure yet. In some ways it's good as they'll be more reluctant to give me a c section and I want a vbac, it also means they won't do an epidural unless I do end up with a section but that's fine too as I'd already decided not to have one. Main thing it may scupper is that I was hoping to labour in water/try for a water birth but I suspect they may say no to that now. Hopefully I'll be referred to a consultant in the next few weeks so can ask some questions then. It's just annoying to have to go through this again!
  • ziggy5ziggy5
    Hi, hopefully as a bit of reassurance you can have many things in labour with low platelets including the water. Unless your platelets are very low you can have epidural/ csection, they normally need to be above 50 for most hospitals, what is your current platelet count? I have a problem with low platelets outside of pregnancy and they will naturalky fall further when pregnant although I think my lowest count last pregnancy was 49. Sounds like they are monitoring you very closely as I only see my haematologist once a month at the moment so try not to worry. Any questions just ask x
  • Baby_PrincessIOMBaby_PrincessIOM
    hi feebs,

    sorry to hear your platlets are low - glad to hear you are being looked after,

    x

    baby_princessIOM
  • Feebs76Feebs76
    Hi, hopefully as a bit of reassurance you can have many things in labour with low platelets including the water. Unless your platelets are very low you can have epidural/ csection, they normally need to be above 50 for most hospitals, what is your current platelet count? I have a problem with low platelets outside of pregnancy and they will naturalky fall further when pregnant although I think my lowest count last pregnancy was 49. Sounds like they are monitoring you very closely as I only see my haematologist once a month at the moment so try not to worry. Any questions just ask x



    Thanks Ziggy - you're the first person I've come across who's suffered with this too! My current level is 102 (it was 166 at 6 weeks pg) which i know is only "mildly low". Last pregnancy I think they were slightly higher at this point - 110 - but they fell steadily over the final few weeks and I was at 72 a couple of days before I went into labour. They did refuse to give me an epidural though, although they were prepared to give me a spinal if I needed a c section, I think they just prefer to avoid if possible which was fine by me. I wasn't allowed a water birth last time as I am also VBAC but this time there is a water pool in the consultant led unit so I was hoping that they'd over look the vbac part as I've had one successfully already but now am thinking the low platelets as well will give them reason to say no.
  • ziggy5ziggy5
    The only advice I can give is to agree a birth plan prior to delivery with your consultant and also to get an appointment with an anaesthetist, I had this at 30 something weeks and had a plan stating that they would give me an epidural if my platelet count was above 50, although luckily didn't need it! I can't see why they should refuse to let you in the pool unless your count is very low as the risk of bleeding is not that high unless your count drops to around 20, I was told to use the bath with my last labour but they did not have a pool or I would have opted for this. I delivered safely with a platelet count of 60 ish (had so much going on can't remember exactly how much) had a tear and was stitched with no more bleeding than expected. Good luck with everything x
  • Feebs76Feebs76
    Thanks ziggy. It's good to know the risk of excessive bleeding is quite low as long as my levels stay above 20. Hopefully I will stay above the 70 mark like last time so will be fine. I also had a tear and stitches last time with no problems bleeding so I'm not too worried about that, it's more how the hospital will treat me. Hopefully I'll hear from the midwife next week to find out when the hospital want to see me andi can have it all out with a consultant!
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