The following day was all a blur and I was full of morphine, I hadn't really absorbed what had happened.I came out of hospital a week later and its now been 3 wks. I have mixed emotions I'm very grateful to still be here with my lovely family but I also feel really down about what I have lost. I am only 26 and my husband and I did plan to maybe have another 2 children when our first 2 went to school.I have been crying at silly things like tampax adverts and people making comments about the 'next one' like ladies on the till at the supermarket.

I passed out because of the loss of blood,I had a Hb count of 2 and they gave me 12EKs (don't know how many liters that is) of blood. All doctors around were in my room- they didn't have time to rush me to an OP room, everything was done on the birthing bed. The head doctor made the decision at the last min. (he told me this later) he said I was to young to have my uterus taken out (25y/o) but if he didn't I would have died. When I woke up in intensive care I remember 5 or 6 dr.s around my bed, they were all smiling at me but I wasn't quite there yet- what do they all want, to congratulate me? I remember being VERY thirsty and after drinking he told me (in german of course) that I lost my uterus (gebaermutter) but that word didn't ring a bell to me I really didn't know what had happened to me. After all the dr.s left a nurse stayed behind and she told me that I wouldn't be able to have any more kids but I should be grateful to be alive. Those words were repeated to me almost daily by a new dr. or nurse and I had to cry everytime they left my room.

My son was absolutely ok and my husband had taken care of him during the big OP.

I have a story to share that made (makes) me emotional when I hear(repeat) it. One of the nurses told me that while I was in intensive care (after the op) my levels were raising and sinking and they couldn't keep me "still" so she had the idea to get my son from the baby room and bring him to me. She said when they laid him on my chest my "levels" immediately calmed.

The next day, so 1.5 days after birth they laid him on my breast to see if I had something for him. They all thought bc of the big drop in blood and iron that my body wouldn't be able to produce any milk but "let's see anyway" and it worked. I breast fed him for 3 months (I couldn't produce any more).

I was in the hospital for 10 days and I have a scar from my belly button to my pubic bone and I remember how much it hurt after the OP (could barely walk- held my stomach with both hands everywhere for a good month) but NOW it's just a memory.

I gave birth to my son twenty-four years ago and I had a placenta accreta. As soon as he was born, I started to heamorrhage heavily. I believe my blood pressure fell to zero. All hell broke loose in the operating room. They called for blood and started transfusing me. A cardiologist came in and I believe I was given ergot. The obstetrician was busy trying to control the bleeding with both hands pushed inside me. It hurt so I started screaming and finally someone gave me an injection of morphine. The end result is my placenta came out and I kept my uterus. In fact, I became pregnant again later. - Camille

It's been 4 1/2 months since the day I call the best day of my life and the worst day of my life. Jack was born healthy and strong on July 13th . Out of the blue, he arrived 9 weeks early. I'd had a great pregnancy, so when I started contractions so early, I was really surprised. The delivery was relatively uneventful with my husband and sister at my side. We already had an adopted 1 year old daughter so when he came out and they said "he's a boy! and he'll be just fine" my husband & I cried with joy. My husband left my side and went with Jack to be assessed and my sister stayed at my side as the doctors started to retrieve the placenta. It wasn't too long when we realized something wasn't right. The rest is a little blurry and I don't have the scientific terminology down - so here is my interpretation. There were two doctors taking turns trying to manually scoop out the placenta - the pain at this point became just about unbearable. My epidural had worn off so I felt everything. It seemed like they were doing this forever, and I cried for them to stop - my sister was crying now too. Then(I've learned after) they inserted a balloon to try to stop the bleeding - it didn't work. I had lost so much blood at this point that I had passed out and was intubated. My sister said every Doctor and available nurse on the maternity ward were in my room now. People were running around and it seemed chaotic. Apparently they were trying to find enough of my blood type - I had lost a lot of blood already. My poor husband walked in at this point and saw blood all over the place - the floors and walls. They were getting my bed ready to move and he helped push me into OR. After about 3 hours in surgery, a Doctor came out and said to my family that they had had to perform a life saving hysterectomy and that I'd lost close to 14 units of blood. A few more hours later, and they decide I didn't need the ICU and sent me back to the maturnity ward for Post Op care. The next day, and feeling like I had been run over by a truck - literally, I found out what had happened. I was lucky to be alive. My placenta had grown into my uterus and wouldn't budge - Placenta Accreta. Now a days, when pregnant, we worry about the baby - will it be Ok? healthy? etc Never do we ever think that our own lives would be in danger! Not with todays medical technology.

Each doctor and nurse that came in to see me said the same thing - you are a strong woman with a strong will to live. I never considered myself strong before, but I do now. Not a day goes by when I don't think about that horrifying time. I have a vertical scar running from my pubic bone up to my belly button and I still have some abdominal pain and discomfort -mainly from having to lift my 22lb daughter around. I don't know how I feel about having my uterus gone - We had just started our family. I am 37 years old and tell myself "don't be sad - you were getting too old anyway - you have a girl and a boy". We'd had trouble getting pregnant and then staying pregnant - I'd had a couple of early miscarriages. Who knows if I would of been able to even get pregnant again... All I know for sure, is that I'm happy to be here, I won't take life for granted and my kids and husband are my joy. - Alison

I´m English but live in the Pyrenees mountains in Spain. I am a homeopath and also believe very much in natural birth. In spain the maternal care is 30 years behind what it is in England and when I became pregnant in 2003 I had the shock of my life to find out that giving birth here would be so brutal. I therefore opted for the one and only natural birth centre 3 hours away from where I live. Labour came on at great force on the 3rd of April 2004 but we managed to arrive at the centre and I had a beautiful water birth within 7 hours. I was happy and my beautiful Lucia was happy. Then the problems began and I was constantly bleeding with no sign of the placenta shifting. We did everything starting with the most natural methods of breast feeding and homeopathic remedies and went on to the injections etc etc but nothing happened. I ended up getting rushed to hospital in a terrible state (although I was calm and happy with my new baby) to have an emergency general anaesthetic and having the placenta manually removed. Two blood transfusions later I was discharged without having any explanation of what happened except that it was a retained placenta.

10 days later I had a dreadful heamorrhage and ended up in hospital again with transfusions etc as a result of placental remains. I had a D & C and 2 days later I was back home.

I am now pregnant again and still no mention of ´placenta Accreta´ and still the same system in hospitals giving me no option but to go back to the birth centre. The advice I have had is that no two pregnancies or births are alike therefore telling me that the risk of another retained placenta is low, however, researching on the internet is basically saying that the risk is high.