Abruptio Placenta

Abruption of the placenta that is not caused by some kind of trauma is usually caused by the clotting of the lake of maternal blood which is normally behind the placenta. The cause of that clotting is usually an inadequate blood volume, which results from inadequate nutrition.

When the placenta first implants on the inner uterine wall, it secretes enzymes which dissolve the ends of the capillaries which come to the inner surface of the uterus. As a result, the open ends of the arterial capillaries spout little fountains of blood behind the placenta, and the open ends of the venous capillaries return the blood to the mother's heart, like little bathtub drains. This is called an arterial-venous shunt. A lake of blood forms behind the placenta, and the baby's capillaries in the placenta, which remain intact (like little loops), are continually bathed in this lake of the mother's blood. Through this process, oxygen and nutrients pass from the mother's lake of blood, through the baby's capillary walls, and into the baby's blood stream, and waste products pass from the baby's capillaries to the mother's blood.

As the placenta grows, the lake of blood behind the placenta needs to grow, and the mother needs to grow more blood in order to keep this lake of blood well-supplied. By the end of the pregnancy, she needs to grow her blood volume by 60% for a singleton pregnancy (about 2 quarts/liters of blood) and 100% for a twin pregnancy (about 3.5 quarts/liters of blood). In order to help her body to increase her blood volume in this way, the mother needs to eat a daily minimum of 2600 calories, salt to taste, and 80-100 grams of protein for a singleton pregnancy, and more than that for a multiple pregnancy.

When the mother's blood volume fails to keep up with the growth of the placenta, through inadequate food intake, loss of salt and fluids (from over-heated conditions or herbal diuretics), or through lifestyle conditions which use up extra calories, the flow of blood through the a-v shunt behind the placenta slows down. The blood that is supposed to be spurting out of the open arterial capillaries behind the placenta like little fountains, slows to a trickle, and the blood flowing through the lake of blood behind the placenta to the open venous capillaries slows down to such a very slow rate that it begins to clot, as blood always does when it is not flowing at a good rate.

The best way to prevent this clotting behind the placenta is for the mother to eat according to the recommendations of the Brewer Pregnancy Diet, plus making daily adaptations, increasing the minimum levels of the Basic Plan to accommodate her personally unique lifestyle and needs. By doing this, she will enable her body to continually expand her blood volume to normal levels, and maintain it at a well-expanded level for the rest of the pregnancy--keeping the little capillary fountains spurting at a good pressure, and the little capillary drains draining at a good rate, and the lake of blood behind the placenta flowing at a good pace so that it doesn't begin to clot.