The uterus is like a piece of soil, and the embryo is like a seed. After the seed enters the soil, part of it continues to take root in the soil and connects with the placenta, while another part splits into new life.
How a seed chooses where to land surely depends first on where the soil is good for landing. Generally speaking, itâs on the posterior, anterior, and lateral walls of the uterus, where the soil is vast and options are plenty. Only when these places are completely destroyed, with no options left, can the seed be forced to migrate to the lower segment. Therefore, factors like infection, multiple births, IUDs, multiple curettages, and cesarean sectionsâthese surgery types that damage the soilâare all reasons that force the seed to wander to the lower segment.
After discussing the soil, letâs talk about the seed itself. If the seed is not strong enough and cannot run to a good place to take root, itâs not the uterusâs fault but the seedâs own fault, referring to the underdevelopment of the embryo itself.
Seeds that wander to the lower segment of the uterus, no matter what, have finally touched the soil; they seize the opportunity to take root and sprout. However, the bad location often results not in the fetusâs position being incorrect. The fetus, like branches and leaves of a big tree, has space to move around, but the root like the placenta which is embedded in the soil cannot change its position, exposing the cervical opening. Whether itâs partial, marginal, or complete exposure, bleeding events are inevitable, which is called placenta previa.
In the third trimester rather than the mid-second trimester, placenta previa is due to the uterusâs growth lifting the placenta away from the cervix as a normal phenomenon. Such cases account for thirty percent of all pregnancies. So when doctors find low-lying placentas during second-trimester ultrasounds, they often lean toward cautious judgment about whether it is true placenta previa, and do not easily alarm the mom and baby.
In obstetrics, true cases of hospitalization due to placenta previa are rare, their proportion is not as high as everyone thinks. Expectant mothers should not scare themselves when seeing ultrasound reports.
If one truly gets placenta previa after hospitalization, as Doctor Liu from the district hospital said, itâs too hard to maintain the pregnancy. Incredibly difficult, to the extent that even in a top-tier hospital, whether it can be maintained depends half on luck and half on the doctorâs skill. So obstetricians often say to mothers, if this child is gone, donât regret it, because life also follows the natural law of survival of the fittest. A child born under duress may also be extremely disastrous.
Some mothers donât quite believe this, and some obstetricians may suggest they go to the neonatal unit to see the situation. In the neonatal unit, some little lives are treated until no cure is possible and are given up.
Even so, for the child in their belly, mothers have long felt united with the child, and as long as there is an inch of hope, itâs basically difficult to give up.
Like Little Sister Luo, you might wonder if she wanted this child for love at first, which is hard to explain clearly. But now she insists on having this child, and all clinical doctors can see itâs no longer about love; she simply canât give up on this child.
A motherâs love for her child can surpass anything in the world. The childâs father may not quite understand this, as they havenât undergone this experience of sharing the same fate and breath with the fetus.
On her way to work the next morning, Xie Wanying received a call from Hu Hao again.
"Xie Wanying, havenât you doctors aborted many fetuses before? Why are you acting like a saint now?" Hu Hao was one step away from labeling the group of doctors as hypocrites.