accreta experience:

Cassie Baldelli

accreta experience: Cassie Baldelli

Finding the Courage to Fight for the Best Outcome

Our first son was born with a heart condition and had open heart surgery at 6 months old, so all of my pregnancies have had echos to check to make sure they are heart healthy. Moments after celebrating with our pediatric cardiologist that baby #3 was heart healthy our world came crashing down as the MFM was called in to tell us that something was very wrong with my placenta. The next hour was spent explaining that I had placenta previa and accreta which, after working in the medical field for 7 years, I had never heard of. The doctor said that I would have to deliver 10 hours away in SLC, have a hysterectomy, have a premature baby, no more Crossfit, pelvic rest, and how serious this condition is. Thank God my husband was with me because I am pretty sure I only heard a few words as I wiped the continual stream of tears from my face.

What do you tell people after you find out? How do you tell them? I had a dozen texts from friends and family before I ever even walked out of that terrible ultrasound asking how it went. I made my husband call his parents and we went to my parent’s house to tell them in person. In hind sight I wish I could have given them some reliable places to go look for information instead of them taking the library to go research on their own and then with good intentions regurgitate a bunch of false information to my already overwhelmed self. For my close friends I sent a text explaining what was going on and said I couldn’t talk about it for a couple of days.

Step one for me was getting a plan. I am a planner at heart and somewhat of a control freak and this condition went against everything I have ever known. Thankfully I was blessed to have an amazing OB and MFM that immediately knew that our local hospital could not handle my case and had the head of the accreta program at University of Utah call me the same day I was diagnosed. As much as I didn’t want to hear that hard conversation he had with me that night I was so thankful to hear the correct information from an experienced and reliable source. We decided to fly to SLC for the day a few weeks later to meet Dr. Einerson and check out the hospital to make sure this was the right place for us. I would highly recommend this. I spent the weeks leading up to that appointment learning everything I could about placenta accreta, previa, the best hospitals, and reading success stories. I went with a list of questions a mile long and a list of the things that were most important to me. I decided to focus on the things that I could have some say and control over which included finding a program that would let me try to get to 36 weeks, would be willing to offer a horizontal incision (which may still be possible even in severe cases), and would let me be awake with my husband in the room for the c-section.

Don’t be afraid to advocate for the things you want! Dr. Einerson and his team were willing to work with me on all my requests and is why I chose to go there. I was also fortunate to find National Accreta Foundation’s Facebook support groups that helped me come up with additional questions. I also got a second opinion over the phone from the head of the program at Stanford in California and made an appointment to get a third opinion in Buffalo New York while we were attending my husband’s cousin’s wedding. For me I needed validation that a hysterectomy was the only safe option and hearing it from more than one source was the only way I could wrap my head around it.

I had gotten approval from all my doctors to attend a wedding at 26 weeks in New York because I hadn’t had any complications. I truly regret that decision and would tell anyone with this that traveling is not worth it! The morning after the wedding I woke up to my first bleed. Thankfully my MFM took my phone call, called the closest hospital in New York and immediately sent me there. I kissed my two little boys good bye and rushed to the hospital. Thankfully it slowed down, I got steroids, and was released two days later to fly home. Unfortunately, while flying home the bleeding started again I immediately went to labor and delivery to meet my MFM when I landed back at home in Montana. She immediately life flighted me to SLC. I grossly underestimated how unpredictable this condition can be and at 26 weeks pregnant I had nothing ready. I had thought I would have another 6 weeks to pack for myself and my kids, train someone to cover for me at our business, set up the nursery, and have everything organized. Not having any of this ready put an indescribable amount of stress on my husband and I. So I would recommend having plans A-Z and plan early. Luckily everything calmed down and after 16 days in the hospital and I was allowed to go stay at a rental with my kids and our parents took turns flying down to help.  

For the next 6 weeks I was extremely careful. I didn’t pick up my kids, limited walking, and rested when I could. The day before my scheduled c-hyst my husband I took our kids to the zoo to enjoy a last few hours with them. Accreta had other plans and sent me racing to the hospital with another bleed. Luckily I made it through the night in the hospital till my scheduled case. It is the weirdest feeling in the world to not be excited about having a baby because you are also terrified of dying. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would be writing letters to my kids in case I didn’t make it at 32 years old. The c-section itself was tough. My epidural didn’t work very well and I could feel a lot but I would do it over again in a minute to give my daughter the best outcome. That first night was brutal. I had great aspirations of waking up from surgery, pumping and then going to the NICU. In hindsight I think those intentions were good but I would have saved myself some grief if I would have been more realistic. I was in so much pain that it was 3am before I saw my daughter for the first time and I lasted 10 minutes before I was too dizzy and had to head back to bed.

Overall both my recovery and my daughters were fairly straight forward. I had a significant bladder repair so I had to have a catheter for 3 weeks and ended up with 2 blood transfusions. My daughter spent 11 days in the NICU mainly for temperature regulation. I was very determined to make breastfeeding work. I was an overproducer with my other two but took every step I could to make sure my milk had the best chance with the blood transfusions. I pumped every 2-3 hours the first 2 days, drank 3-4 glasses of mothers milk tea, hand expressed before each pumping or feeding. After the first 2 days I went to every feed except 1 each day because my supply was good and I knew my daughter got more from me than a bottle. I am so thankful that breastfeeding worked out because I felt like it was something I could hold onto through everything. 

Finally, after 70 days away from home we all got to go home as a family of five. Other things that I highly recommend for recovery are a post partum girdle (I used Bellyfit), pelvic floor physical therapy, not being afraid to get on an anti-depressant, walking, continuing to participate in online support groups, and drinking tons of water. Lastly, give yourself grace. I never had post partum depression with my other kids but my OB explained to me that my body had been in such a high stress state for so long that it was just fried and getting on an anti-depressant for 6-9 months was going to help me. I am so happy that I took her advice because my kids really needed me to be there for them and not crying all the time. Please know you can and you will get through this.

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“Accreta Experiences” is a National Accreta Foundation produced series where accreta survivors write articles sharing their placenta accreta experiences and learnings in their own words to help those new to the accreta community.

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