Placenta previa on One Tree Hill a possibly deadly diagnosis?

MosersGirl

I'm watching OTH that I dvr'd on Monday.  Peyton (one of the main characters) is pregnant.  A few episodes ago they found out that if she continues the pregnancy she could die. She and her FI made the agonizing decision to continue the pregnancy, all the while making it sound like she probably wouldn't make it to raise her child (she is even working on a memory box for her child). 

In the episode I'm watching now, her FI (Lucas) tells Brooke (a friend) about her scary condition called "placenta previa" and how she might die.  WTF?!?  I was told early on in my pregnancy that I might have it, but it was no big deal and would probably correct itself.  In what world (besides the 1700's) would placenta previa be agonized over and looked at as a strong possibility of death to the mother?  Do I just have no idea what I'm talking about, or are the writers of OTH idiots?

htomeo

You do realize you are referring to a made up tv show?

bargar18

i agree with PP...made up tv show :-)

i had a very low placenta, not completely covering the cervix, but low.  my Dr said even if it were covering the entire cervix, that just would have meant a c-section...not death :-)

MosersGirl

htomeo:

You do realize you are referring to a made up tv show?

Ummm...they could at least try to make it seem realistic!  I guess on a show in which all of the 22 year old main characters are now wealthy and famous (bball player, fashion designer, singer, author, LOL), it makes sense that they would make her have deadly placenta previa.  ;-)

Geekchick921

Placenta previa IS a potentially life threatening condition.  Nowadays placenta previa at full term (the placenta can often be low lying early on then kinda drift upwards as the uterus gets bigger) is treated by C-section and I think it's not uncommon to be put on bedrest because of it.

Placenta precia occurs when the placenta is situated over the cervix, completely blocking the birth canal.  If a woman with placenta previa goes into labor, the baby will push through the placenta, causing a massive hemmorhage and can be fatal.

As for it being a TV show, it happened on an episode of L&O SVU as well. 

MosersGirl

Geekchick921:

Placenta previa IS a potentially life threatening condition.  Nowadays placenta previa at full term (the placenta can often be low lying early on then kinda drift upwards as the uterus gets bigger) is treated by C-section and I think it's not uncommon to be put on bedrest because of it.

Placenta precia occurs when the placenta is situated over the cervix, completely blocking the birth canal.  If a woman with placenta previa goes into labor, the baby will push through the placenta, causing a massive hemmorhage and can be fatal.

As for it being a TV show, it happened on an episode of L&O SVU as well. 

I understand what it is; as I said before, the doctor thought I had it early on, but it corrected itself.  Without modern technology it would be life threatening, for sure, but nowadays?  Not so much.  Based on how dramatic and upset they were and how they were talking of ending the pregnancy because of it, I assumed it was something really deadly, not something that quite a few people get that requires a c-section.  But like pps said, it's a made up show.  I'll just go with it. 

Sunny1inTucson

I think the more important question is....why are you watching OTH? lol

MosersGirl

Sunny1inTucson:

I think the more important question is....why are you watching OTH? lol

LOL!  Good question! 

kamcfarlane

i had a previa that resulted in DS being born at 32w6d. at our 20w u/s it was unclear whether there was 1 placenta that was low lying or whether there were 2 nodes connected by a single blood vessel that went over the cervix.  had the later been the case, it would have been a very dangerous situation and i would have been put on hospital bedrest immediately.  had i gone into labor or broken that vessel some other way, i would have hemmoraged and both of our lives would ahve been in danger.  thank god that wasn't the case, but i still had some pretty serious hemmoraging toward the end of the pregnancy. while it's true that almost all previas resolve on their own and the usual worst case scenario is a c-section, a previa can be a very dangerous situation.