Placental Insufficiency

Placental insufficiency, or the inability of maternal placental functioning to properly provide healthy, normal levels of oxygenated and nutrients to the fetus, presents grave risks and implications for the child, should quick diagnosis and immediate medical attention not be received.

Diagnosis and Early Testing for Placental Insufficiency in Pregnancy

Placental insufficiency, which is clinically referenced Utero-Placental Vascular Insufficiency or UPVI, is known medical risk for pregnant women. As such, any neonatal care program will implement a time-series test of placental efficiency during the 12^th. 16^th, and 20^th gestational weeks. In this sense, early diagnosis and early testing for placental insufficiency, as well as circumventing fetal development impediments or high-risks to the health of the mother, is predicated entirely on pregnant women obtaining prenatal care early in their first trimester. Specifically, these gestational periods allow medical professionals to attempt to also prepare for preventative care in the event that testing for placental insufficiency in general reveals specific gestational complications commonly associated with UPVI, including intrauterine growth restriction in the infant and the presence of preeclampsia or eclampsia in the mother. Finally, any infant presenting with fetal distress or other birth complications in utero should be indicative of the possibility of placental insufficiency as the cause.

Problems Associated with Placental Insufficiency

First, the relative problems associated with placental insufficiency will vary from patient to patient, specifically in the sense that placental insufficiency is one of degree, or a question of the relative amount of being displayed by the placenta in meeting the oxygen and nutritional needs of the fetus. In this sense, the problems associated with placental insufficient are contingent upon the following:

• Should the placental insufficiency interfere with gestational growth requirements of the in utero child, the building blocks of life, such as critical amino acids, blood products, nutrients, and oxygen are not reaching the fetus. Failure to meet gestational growth goals is strongly associated with a whole host of permanent development disorders in infants, including cerebral palsy, intellectual disabilities, and sufficiently severe, death of the fetus and stillbirth
• Placental insufficiency, if warranted by the other factors involved in the delivery date calculus, may initiate a pre-term birth, which will outweigh risks associated with premature births in the assessment of an attending medical professional
• Placental insufficiency is associated with low birth weights, prolonged labor, and distressed births, possibly requiring C-section delivery in advance
• Placental insufficiency, if suspected, requires constant monitoring for the remainder of the pregnancy, as to the mother, the condition until extremely severe will appear relatively asymptomatic until confirmation of a diagnosis is made via ultrasound and testing done by an obstetrician

Ultimately, placental insufficiency jeopardizes both the life of the child, and by extension, that of the mother. In any case of deprivation of gestational requirements in utero, infants stand exponentially increased risks for later developing cognitive, developmental, and medical complications that are generally permanent in nature.

Placental Insufficiency and IntraUterine Growth Restriction (IUGR) Explained

Intrauterine growth restriction occurs when the gestational development of a child leaves the infant underweight, undersized, or underdeveloped, with usual gestational developmental deficiencies being most common in the lungs, which require at least thirty-seven weeks to fully form. In instances of severe or prolonged placental insufficiency, infant growth requirements in utero are not met as the placenta fails to properly circulate between the mother and child essential vascular, respiratory, hormonal, and metabolic assets required for a healthy live birth due to placental failures. Altered or diminished placental functioning that fails to actively or passively transport requisite gestational materials from mother to fetus will result in intrauterine growth restriction developing in infants if the placental deficiency remains or progressively worsens.

The Role of Placental Insufficiency in Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral Palsy (CP) is a progressively worsening childhood and early adult condition in which patients experience large-scale health problems due to a similar grouping of devastating and incurable symptoms. Generally, the brain damage or insufficiency required in presumed cases of onset cerebral palsy would require a prolonged or acute severe deprivation of oxygen in the brain causing milder, but medically-concerning complications such as brain damage and seizures more immediately than the appearance of cerebral palsy in infants, however. In practice, most forms of cerebral palsy correlate very strongly to live births involving placental insufficiency, as the involuntary maternal deprivation due to placental insufficiency impedes the normal gestational development and growth of a fetus. This oxygen deficiency, as well as gestational interruptions due to emergency preterm delivery, distressed delivery, or prolonged nutrient deficiency, are all suspected causes or contributing factors in cerebral palsy cases. Resources: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001485.htm http://ebooks.cambridge.org/chapter.jsf?bid=CBO9780511933806&cid=CBO9780511933806A027 https://myhealth.alberta.ca/Health/aftercareinformation/pages/conditions.aspx?hwid=uh4193 https://www.mountsinai.on.ca/care/placenta-clinic/complications/placentalinsufficiency