It was the summer of 1990, I was seven months pregnant with my daughter, Ryan. I was out walking when I felts an intense pain in my side. I began having contractions off an on so I went home and called my midwife. She told me to rest, stay off my feet and drink lots of water. The contractions continued sporadically through the night and in the morning. I had spot-bled a little.

I went in and had an ultrasound which showed a tear in the placenta the size of an orange. I was hospitalized immediately with what they called a 70% abrupt placenta. This is life threatening to both the mother and the fetus so I spent the night in the labor-delivery ward so that they could perform an emergency C-section if necessary. 

The monitors and tests showed the baby was stable and I didn't appear to be losing too much blood, so we were moved to a regular room were they diagnosed I would probably spend the duration of my pregnancy. During a pregnancy, the blood does not clot normally and is therefore difficult to heal large internal wounds. All the doctors could tell me was they had no idea how it occurred and how it healed so we would wait and watch (and stick needles in me everyday)!

This was a very helpless moment and I decided to pray, so I did all the time-I prayed to God and I talked to my daughter. I realized it was up to me to heal this completely and I did not have to believe the doctors prognosis. Ten days later I was given another ultrasound reading and the abruption was completely gone. The doctors still had no answers but I was discharged from the hospital.

Two and a half months later I delivered a very healthy baby girl. When the placenta was examined for scar tissue they couldn't find any evidence of any trauma whatsoever!!

R.R. - United States