Placenta: everything you need to know
- INTRODUCTION
- PLACENTA, A UNIQUE AND PRECIOUS ORGAN
- FORMATION OF THE PLACENTA: HOW AND WHEN
- THE FUNCTIONS OF THE PLACENTA
- OXYGEN TO THE PUPPY
- DEPURATIVE FUNCTION FOR THE FOETUS' BODY FLUIDS
- SUPPORTING THE PUPPY'S IMMUNE SYSTEM
- PASSAGE OF NUTRIENTS
- ENDOCRINE FUNCTIONS
- PROTECTIVE BARRIER AGAINST HARMFUL SUBSTANCES
- LOCATIONS OF THE PLACENTA
- PLACENTA PREVIA: CAUSES AND RISKS
- PLACENTAL ABRUPTION: WHAT IT MEANS AND HOW TO TREAT IT
Introduction
La placenta: For pregnant women, especially those having their first child, it is essential to be informed about the peculiarities of this wonderful organ, which nourishes and protects the baby throughout pregnancy.
If you are wondering what the placenta is, what its locations are and possible problems that may affect it, this content is perfect for you.
As you can see, there is a table of contents, inserted to make your reading easy and allow you, with a quick click on the title of the paragraph that interests you most, to delve into the various declinations of the theme.
For a complete journey, packed with all the information that can help you arrive calmly at the day of your puppy's birth, I look forward to seeing you in the Birth and Rebirth Mother video coursewhich I have personally edited and which you can find by clicking on the button at the bottom of each paragraph.
On the Instagram profile @drsilva.com_officialyou can find plenty of advice to accompany your child throughout its motor development.
Placenta, a unique and precious organ
La placenta is a organ special to say the least.
Temporary and deciduous - The second adjective refers to the fact that, once its function is complete, it separates from the body – nourishes and protects the foetus during the journey of pregnancy.
His trainingwhich I will discuss in more detail in the next section, occurs in the mother's womb.
The placenta originates both from the mother's body, to be precise from changes in the endometrium, both from the embryo.
The portion of the placenta that originates from the embryo are the chorionic villi.
Their job is to absorb oxygen and other nutrients for the foetus from the mother's blood.
Their valuable role does not end there. I chorionic villi, in fact, they are essential for the release of carbon dioxide to the mother's body.
As already mentioned, it will be the subject of the next paragraphs, the placenta separates from the body.
It does so in the course of a process that is called, in obstetric and gynaecological jargon, secondment.
After childbirththe placenta is expelled in the vast majority of cases spontaneously about half an hour after the puppy's birth.
This happens thanks to real contractions which, however, are less intense in comparison to those of labour.
Through the latter, the detachment of the cotyledons, the blood vessels that keep the placenta anchored to the uterus, from the walls of that organ occurs.
Formation of the placenta: how and when
More or less seven days after conception, the blastocyst, i.e. the most advanced form of embryonic development, begins its penetration into the endometrium.
After a time that, in principle, corresponds to six more days, the blastocyst is enveloped by the endometrium and continues with its development.
Starting with some of the cells of the embryo, the formation of chorionic villi begins, which penetrate the endometrium, are involved in increasingly complex branching processes.
The placenta is thus formed which, around twelve weeks of pregnancy, è able to fully oversee its nurturing and protective tasks of what, from a medical point of view, is now a foetus.
Feeding functions were previously the responsibility of the yolk sac, an extra-embryonic membrane visible from the first weeks of gestation and crucial for the formation of blood and germ cells.
The yolk sac, which stops growing around the twelfth week, disappears around the twelfth week.
Meanwhile, the growth of the placenta continues, close to delivery, it can reach a weight of 500 - 600 grams.
The diameter at the end of pregnancyInstead, it goes 20 to 30 centimetres.
As far as the thickness, definitely more substantial in the centre, we are talking about 4.
The functions of the placenta
Let us now talk about the functions of the placenta.
The main one concerns the management of gaseous and metabolic exchanges between maternal blood and that of the growing foetus.
La communication between the latter and the placenta takes place thanks to the umbilical cord.
It is worth remembering that even the maternal organism, in its own way, 'communicates' with the wonderful organ that is the subject of these lines.
It does this through blood-filled bags, the so-called gapswhich are in turn in contact with the chorionic villi.
After this necessary introduction, we can list the other functions of the placenta in detail.
Oxygen to the puppy
Between other functions is possible citing the release of oxygen to the foetus e the removal of carbon dioxide from it.
For the diffusion of both these gases, the thin layer of cells that allows separation between the chorionic villi and the mother's blood is crucial.
Purifying function for the foetus' body fluids
During the intrauterine life, the purifying functions incumbent on the kidneys are carried out by the placenta.
The same applies to homeostasis, technical term for the ability of organisms to regulate their internal environment even in the face of changes in the external environment.
Supporting the puppy's immune system
Through theendocytosisprocess in which cells, via the plasma membrane, incorporate molecules and other bodies into the extracellular space, the fantastic organ we are talking about allows the passage of antibodies to the puppy.
This fantastic organ is also capable of prevent the passage to certain pathogenic organisms.
Attention: not everyone! There are several exceptions, including the protozoan that causes the toxoplasmosis.
Passage of nutrients
Endocrine functions
From the very beginning of its development, the placenta secretes the hormone human chorionic gonadotropin, whose beta fraction is detected at the time of the pregnancy test.
L'hCG has a task very important: support the progesterone synthesis processes, which start from the corpus luteum.
Around the week seven of pregnancy, the placenta is able to autonomously manage the synthesis of all the progesterone the embryo needs.
The corpus luteum then starts degenerate and the hCG levels to decrease.
Protective barrier against harmful substances
La placentaacting as a barrier, protects the foetus from various harmful substances.
Again, there are exceptions.
These include the nicotine and other carcinogenic substances found in cigarettes, the drugs and thealcohol.
Locations of the placenta
When it comes to the placenta, it is also necessary to dwell on its different locations, depending on where the embryo implantation takes place.
Here are the main ones:
- Rear: at this juncture, as I explain well in this videothe placenta is facing the mother's back;
- fundica, situation in which the placenta is located at the level of the upper wall of the uterus;
- front, case where the placenta 'looks' towards the belly;
- right or left side location.
I also recall the existence of several intermediate positions and especially the fact that The important thing is that the placenta is above the foetus.
It can happenas is well known, that the embryo implants in the lower part of the uterus.
At these junctures, we speak of low placenta and placenta previa.
The first is located near the lower orifice of the uterus. It is a worrying picture? Not necessarily.
It can happen, in fact, that the puppy, assuming the cephalic position, moves the placenta to the side.
La placenta previa, instead, partially or totally covers the aforementioned orifice.
Placenta previa: causes and risks
La placenta previafacilitated by risk factors as the same diagnosis in previous pregnancies, the caesarean sectionthe smoking, l'age over 35 and, just to name another among many, the gestation following PMA, is a condition that deserves immediate medical attention.
The MAIN RISK is that, with labour and the resulting dilation of the cervix, the placenta detaches e the puppy, which no longer has its source of nourishment, does not survive.
This is why, having ascertained, which can be done definitively after 32 weeks, the diagnosis of placenta previa, you opt for the birth by caesarean section.
Proceeding before 40 weeksso as to prevent the placenta from reaching the period when it is no longer able to manage its functions to the best of its ability or labour starts naturally.
Placental abruption: what it means and how to treat it
The placental abruption is aobstetrical emergency which occurs when, before time, the placenta detaches from the walls of the uterus.
A rare occurrence and in already problematic pregnancies - favoured, for example, by the mother's high age and high blood pressure - in acute cases it has as a symptom a sudden, constant and localised pain.
To describe it better is totally different from contractions, rising and falling and involving the whole uterus.
Also in acute pictures of placental abruption, bleeding may occur.
What to do?
Go immediately to the obstetric emergency room.
Here, health personnel take care of such things as monitoring the fetus' heartbeat, performing pelvic ultrasounds, and examining the mother's blood count.
If the pregnancy is full-term, the critical cardiotocographic tracing and the mother's haemodynamically unstable clinical picture, you perform the emergency caesarean.
With stable maternal haemodynamic picture e non-critical cardiotocographic trace, you can try, of course in the absence of contraindications such as placenta previa, by vaginal delivery.
Hospitalisation and observation of the expectant woman are instead indicated in the case of placental abruption in non-term pregnancywith bleeding not life-threatening for mother and puppy e course of the latter regular.
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