Placenta blood flow- how is it tested?

[ToughCOOKIE78]

Good afternoon,

I’m 12 weeks pregnant and would like to test my placentas blood flow, to ensure its working properly and taking care of our baby.

I’ve asked my midwife as I thought that’s done through a blood test (called PAPP-a) but she said it’s not and it can be seen at a scan.

Do you have any experience of this and can you offer any advice please?

Many thanks all ❤️

[Seb9]

Your placenta gets checked during your screening scans and blood test. At the scan they measure the pulse rate and that shows the health of the placenta, it sounds like a heart beating and they listen to this for a while and take measurements from it.

Your screening blood test measures the PAPP-A for Edwards Patau and downs syndrome and they've found of this hormone is low they're might be an issue with the placenta, but if these tests had found an issue with your they would let you know and arrange extra scans later on during your pregnancy.

If you've had your blood test and 12 week scan and not heard anything about having a low PAPP score and nothings been mentioned at your scan then they've not found any issue with your placenta.

If you've got concerns about it maybe ask your midwife about the tests that you've had so far and what they've looked at and if there are any concerns.

Hope you have a happy healthy pregnancy x

[ToughCOOKIE78 in reply to Seb9]

My midwife doesn’t seem very knowledgeable at all, when I mentioned the PAPP-a test she didn’t know what I was talking about which is quite worrying.... Screening bloods are routine ones, full blood count, HIV, Hepatitis, sickle cells etc...nowhere else it mentions PAPP-a...Im confused. I’ve had the Harmony test for down, edwards and patau...but that’s different as it’s for chromosomal abnormalities (I got a low risk result).

Thanks for explaining hun! Xxx