Vasa Praevia
Vasa Praevia (VP) is a condition where the blood vessels in the umbilical cord lie low down in the womb in the membranes around baby either over or very close to the opening of the womb into the vagina.
Normally the blood vessels from baby in the umbilical cord enter into the placenta. With VP the blood vessels enter the membranes then go on into the placenta.
When the blood vessels lie in the membranes they don’t have any of the protection from the jelly around the cord and so can be broken.
VP occurs overall in about 1 in 2500 pregnancies BUT is as common as 1 in 300 pregnancies that are from IVF.
VP is a very important condition to recognise. If you go into labour or your waters break before you go into labour there is every chance that the blood vessels will break and sadly baby will bleed to death. Research shows that the at the very worst case scenario the chances of survival when vasa praevia is diagnosed before birth results in a doubling of survival for baby to 97%.
It has been our personal experience that survival due to an elective Caesarean section at 34 to 36 weeks is 100%.
MUMS recommend that all pregnancies should be screened for VP. MUMS was the first clinic in the UK to offer this to all patients at the time of any scan after 11 weeks at no extra cost.