Forceful pulling of the placenta is not advisable

Delivering your placenta must be done safely

THERE are millions of women who deliver babies in hospitals but hear nothing about the placenta, let alone see it. The placenta is delivered naturally after the offspring, a process referred to as a ‘physiological third stage.’

If you come from the rural areas, you must be familiar with the deliveries of the offspring of domesticated animals, and may already be familiar with the placenta.

In traditional midwifery, especially home birthing, the mother is aware of placenta delivery because there are no technological interventions to quicken birth and the placenta ejects naturally. Birth at home also takes its natural course and there are no time constraints on the midwife or assistants. Natural delivery of the placenta is accompanied by slightly more blood loss and can take as much as an hour, which can be seen as bothersome in a resource- constrained hospital.

Due to the high risk of bleeding if the placenta remains in the uterus for too long after delivery, the doctor or the midwife conducting the delivery will usually do ‘controlled cord traction’ to ensure fast and safe delivery.

Forceful pulling of the placenta is not advisable because of the risk of complications such as snapping of the cord hence leaving the placenta inside the uterus. If the placenta is adherent to the uterus, then manual delivery is done preferably under anaesthesia to make the removal easier and to avoid pain to the mother.

In rare cases, the placenta is too adherent to be removed; in such a case the uterus may have to be removed to control bleeding.

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