Liu Minxia

    mllmx@msn.com

    A SHENZHEN woman lost her womb and almost her life while giving birth to her second child late Thursday, adding to the increasing number of pregnant women with higher risks of health hazards doctors have been seeing since the implementation of the two-child policy this year.

    The 32-year-old woman, who was not identified, gave birth to her first child through a Cesarean section, and was found to have placenta previa and placental invasion on the 32nd week of her second pregnancy. She was then transferred from a hospital in Bao’an District to Shenzhen People’s Hospital, where doctors decided to perform a Cesarean section in her 36th week of pregnancy.

    “Her placenta was blocking the way to get the infant out, and we tried not to make a hole in the placenta to avoid too much bleeding,” said Su Fangming, a doctor who was involved in the surgery. “But her womb hemorrhaged badly during the process and we had to perform a hysterectomy to remove her womb.”

    After a seven-hour surgery, which involved dozens of doctors and nurses from the hospital’s surgery, anesthesiology, obstetrics departments and the intensive care units, the woman was saved. She required the transfusion of more than 10,000 ml of blood, which means that all of her blood was changed three times, as the average human body contains about 4,000 ml of blood.

    “Placenta previa and placental invasion usually occur when a fertilized egg is implanted on the scar left by a previous Cesarean section,” said Su. “The more Cesarean sections a woman receives, the more likely it is for her to have the problem. The risk of having the problem is 5 percent if a woman has never received a Cesarean section, 24 percent if she has received a C-section once, and 40 percent if twice.”

    Su warns pregnant women who have previously had a C-section to check whether the embryo is implanted on or around the scar to get prepared for the potential risks.

    Shenzhen’s health commission said late Thursday that it has found that the proportion of high-risk pregnant women, including women of advanced maternal age and women with uterine scars, has risen markedly in Shenzhen since China implemented the two-child policy Jan. 1.

    About 385,000 pregnant women have medical records with Shenzhen hospitals from Oct. 1, 2015 to Sept. 30, 2016, and 19 of them, or 8.97 in every 100,000, died during that period, the commission said. The rate is higher than the 6.18/100,000 last year, but lower than the 11.22/100,000 in 2014.