Pregnancy complications

Well, there are complications of toxemia - http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=15914

There is the rare amniotic embolism.

Are you looking for things that could happen during gestation or at delivery?

Ectopic (tubal) pregnancies can rupture and lead to death by internal bleeding.

And here's an article that may give you more info - http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cach...+fatal+complications&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=us

It depends what you need. Early pregnancy? Late? Labor? Postpartum? Sudden onset? Prolonged and dramatic?

She could have an undiagnosed cardiac or clotting disorder. Those are always frightening. Amniotic fluid embolism is typically diagnosed during an autopsy. She could hemorrhage to death from a placenta previa or a placental abruption. Undiagnosed ruptured ectopic pregnancy. I've heard tales of an ectopic pregnancy implanting on the spleen. That could cause someone to bleed to death, although the case I heard about both mother and baby were fine.

Tell me more about what you are looking for.

I agree about toxemia or pre-eclampsia. I developed it during delivery with my daughter, and I could have had a stroke because my blood pressure went so high. Some women develop it before labor and delivery, and it can cause organ failure, too.

When I was younger, a friend of mine in high school died because her appendix burst during labor. Because of the pains of the contractions, they had no idea that she had appenicitis.

I had massive leg/feet swelling (which is pretty common, just not quite as bad as I had), but the danger was that one leg/foot was very swollen and the other wasn't, which can be a sign of blood clots. Blood clots can kill fast (they travel) and it's easy not to realize anything's wrong.

The baby might come out sideways.

I vote for placenta previa. I was terrified that would happen when I was pregnant.

I was a little...hormonal.

After the baby is born, sometimes doctors/nurses get a little impatient for the placenta to deliver and tug on the cord. This can lead to a portion of the placenta tearing off and remaining in the mother. At first, the little bit of extra bleeding might not be noticed, but the mother can die of it.

Doctors/nurses/midwives are trained to examine the placenta and make sure that it is whole and complete, but at times, the placenta will form extra little lobes that may tear off and not be noticed.

I saw a birthing video where a woman was laboring at home for a very long time and was completely exhausted. After she had the baby, her muscles didn't contract and stop the bleeding like they should. She was bleeding out, and as my midwife explained to me, bleeding out can feel almost euphoric, especially when it follows some really intense discomfort. The woman didn't want to stop bleeding. She didn't want the midwife to help her. She wasn't even looking at her baby or her husband, she was just spacing out.

The midwife tried a few techniques to start contractions, hoping that intense contractions would stave off the blood loss long enough to get the woman to the hospital (if that was still necessary). The woman wouldn't go along. She actually struck at her midwife, because the bleeding felt nice and she didn't want it to stop. Finally, the midwife stalked over and jabbed a needle full of pitocin in the woman's leg. Pitocin starts unnaturally intense contractions. It is often used in hospitals to start preterm labor or to get a stalled labor going again, but the problem is that pit induced contractions are stronger, more painful and yet less helpful than regular ones. They work nicely for stopping blood loss, though.

Anyway, the point was that it took the pit injection to stop the bleeding. Afterwards, the woman and her placenta were examined, and there was nothing actually wrong; she'd just been bleeding out and loving it.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>TMI<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Bloodloss continues after you have a baby. You bleed for about a month straight, soaking through thick pads every so many hours. Sometimes there are clots. Big ones. If you have any that are bigger than a silver dollar, you're supposed to tell a medical professional, but many women don't. Clots that large can be a sign of a lingering problem, and yes, a woman can still die.

In fact, that blood that you lose after giving birth is not menstrual. It's called Lochia (sp?). If a woman has sex while the lochia is still flowing, and the man's penis is not completely clean, nastiness can flow straight into the deepest parts of a woman...and if she becomes infected, she can die quickly and painfully.

There are so many ways to die before, during, and after childbirth!

At what stage of pregnancy do you want the death to happen/

There's another syndrome that occurs in pregnancy and is life-threatening. It's HELLP, which is an acronym for hemolytic anemia, elevated liver enzymes, and low platelet count.

Here's the Wiki on it, and there are other sites that describe the symptoms and the progression of the illness.