Cerebral Palsy videos

Placenta Pathlogy

 

Placental Pathology
One tool used to time when an injury occurs in labor and delivery is placental pathology.  The placenta is the unit that connects the baby through its umbilical cord to its mother through her uterus.  The placenta can show many things that occur during the nine months of pregnancy and some things that occur during labor and delivery.  Foe example, one can examine the placenta under a microscope to look for infection or signs of meconium – passage of the baby’s stool in uterus, or signs of diabetes, can be seen on the placenta.  All of these things should be examined under a microscope to get an accurate picture of what type of environment was in during the nine months or however long the baby was
in utero, up through labor and delivery.

In addition, the placenta may show signs of an abruption which is a premature separation of the placenta from the uterine wall, or blood clots.  These two may help determine what caused an injury to the baby during labor and delivery.  The pathologist has at his fingertips the microscopic examination.  But we shouldn’t forget the gross examination of the placenta.  Many times one will see clots just by visually examining the placenta without even needing to look at a microscope.  Or the placenta will be broken in certain parts, or it can have several lobes.  Or it can be covered by meconium – stool passage of a baby in utero. 

So, a thorough examination of the gross placenta- the outside of the placenta, together with a microscopic examination of the placenta, together with examining the umbilical cord that connects the baby to the placenta, under the microscope can be valuable tools in determining if there was an insult during labor and delivery.

All are Cerebral Palsy Videos

Cerebral Palsy video chapter 1 - Introduction to Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral Palsy video chapter 2 - Causes of Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral Palsy video chapter 3 - Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE)

Cerebral Palsy video chapter 4 - Timing a Brain Injury

Cerebral Palsy video chapter 5 - Fetal Heart Rate Monitoring

Cerebral Palsy video chapter 6 - Nucleated Red Blood Cells

Cerebral Palsy video chapter 7 - Radiograph

Cerebral Palsy video chapter 8 - Placenta Pathlogy

Cerebral Palsy video chapter 9 - Microcephaly

Cerebral Palsy video chapter 10 - Vaginal birth after C-section (VBAC)

Cerebral Palsy video chapter 11 - Placental Abruption