Low platelets -home birth in jepoardy

[TeamB]

Hi
I am 37+4 weeks pregnant and have jus been told that I have low platelet - now 133. Community midwife said I cannot have home birth as too low. Has anyone got experience of this? I spoke to an independent midwife and she said they work on 80 or lowers as danger benchmark. I may end up going with an IM but it is big expense.
Has anyone got any tips for diet as to how I can naturally increase level or experience of labour with low (on my levels) platelet level. Also are they likely to drop further? They were 144 in June so not dropped dramatically.
Thansk

 

[izzlesnizzle]

I had low platelets towards the end of my last pregnancy. No one picked up on the decline in my bloods until I was in labour. By that time they were 69. They were 120 at 28 weeks, 105 at 37 weeks when I went for the birth centre assessment. Long and short of it was they wouldn't let me have an epidural as the platelets need to be over 80, so I laboured with G & A, and a synto drip because I wasn't progressing. Ended up with EMCS in the end because I wasn't progressing and baby was back to back and they let me have a spinal because they did a manual count of the platelets in the lab and it came back bang on 80. Otherwise it would have been a general anaesthetic.

This time round the consultant is checking my bloods at 28 wks then again at 34 wks and if they're less than 80 shes going to put me on a course of steroids. Its a wait and watch thing with me. You can deliver naturally with a low platelet count but theres increased risk of haemorrage. I didn't lose much blood at all though during and after my section so that wasn't an issue for me. The main problem was I needed a section and I wasn't allowed a spinal or epidural initially but was lucky in the very end and got a spinal. I have something called ITP which is an unknown cause for low platelets. The normal range is >150 but anything over 100 is fine really and over 80 they will let you have a epidural. If theres an issue with your platelets though home isn't really the place to be. I would much rather be in hospital just in case. In my experience just watch the trend on your bloods and if it goes down and down between now and the labour then it needs dealing with. Sounds as though your MW is on the case anyway pointing it out to you now which is more than my MW did!

 

[Jane19]

Try papaya leaf extract to bring your counts up. I've seen it work very well very quickly.

 

[mrspeanut]

As pp said when it drops under 150 it's considered low. Mine was 143 at 26 weeks so have to go for monthly blood test to check if it's decreasing or not. My midwife told me to eat beet root to help bring it up. I also read online to avoid artificial sweeteners in diet soda drinks and things like that I figured it's worth a try. Thanks Jane19 too for the papaya leaf extract tip, I'll be looking into that too!

 

[Rickles]

I had low platelets with DD and they are dropping again this time. Like the other poster said they continued to drop until birth - right now mine are 140... last time they dipped to 70, but on delivery day they were 98 - yet I still didn't get an epidural - anaesthetist refused - so I had a forceps delivery on gas and air - it was not fun.

For me nothing worked to lift them, so having tried everything last time I'm not bothering with all the "natural" solutions (I've spoken to the top 3 haematologists in the world about it - they all said don't bother). They did also warn me it was likely to recur in all my pregnancies.

I will be monitored 4 weekly from 28 weeks and I have a meeting with an anaesethist to discuss my pain relief options at 28 weeks too. Last time I had to have a consultant led birth and was not allowed in the midwife centre - but this might vary according to the hospital. I would have thought if yours stayed above 100 they would not be too concerned... for me they only started getting tetchy when they dipped below 80 from about 36 weeks.

Usually if they drop below 50 it's a c-section with GA end of story.

Mine definitely dropped during labour - I had some pretty horrific bruising from my post birth blood test!! If you have ITP they will stay low after the birth but in my case it was gestational thrombocytopenia so within weeks of the birth they were back to normal.