Groundbreaking medical research completed by a team at the Institute of Cancer Research, a college of the University of London, working in conjunction with researchers in Japan, discovered that certain cancer cells can cross the placenta of an afflicted mother-to-be into her unborn baby.

Such a link had been suspected previously, with about 17 cases of leukemia and melanoma supposedly passed on from mother to fetus, but genetic “fingerprinting” has established a definite link.

In the most recent case, a Japanese mother died from complications of leukemia one month after giving birth. Eleven months later, her supposedly healthy baby daughter was diagnosed with lymphoma, which is now in remission.

The researchers discovered that cancer cells of both mother and baby carried the identical mutated cancer gene, but the infant had not inherited the gene – instead, it passed through the placenta during the mother’s pregnancy.

Cause for concern?

The fetus’ immune system did not recognize the cancer cells as foreign bodies and so did not destroy them. However, in an article posted on the Guardian website, a UK-based newspaper, Professor Mel Greaves stresses, “The chances of any pregnant woman with cancer passing it on to her child are remote.” Greaves led the research study that uncovered this important link.

Rather than giving pregnant women yet another thing to worry about (the Japanese mother who prompted the study did not know she had leukemia until after she gave birth), the study provides hope for future cancer research and insight into possible cures.

In the same article, Dr David Grant, scientific director at Leukaemia Research, said: “The important message from this … is that leukemia cells can be destroyed by the immune system. Harnessing the power of the immune system to cure and protect patients from leukemia is one of our priority areas of research.”

This story truly is one about finding a glimmer of good out of sad news.

More Facts About Cancer and Pregnancy

According to research, about 1 in every 1,000 pregnant women is diagnosed with cancer, but pregnancy does not cause any form of cancer. Sometimes standard pre-natal testing, such as ultrasounds or PAP smears, may uncover cancers that had gone previously undetected.

On the other hand, symptoms of certain cancers may be similar to symptoms of pregnancy, which can actually delay detection of the cancer.

Breast cancer, occurring in one in every 3,000 pregnant women, is the most common form of cancer during pregnancy.

Treatment of cancer during pregnancy may include:

• Surgery

• Chemotherapy

• Radiation therapy

The latter two treatments are prescribed conservatively, only after careful consideration to their effects on the fetus. Chemotherapy is often safe in the second and third trimesters, with drugs that do not pass through the placenta.

It Can Be Done

Cancer during pregnancy certainly creates additional challenges for the mother-to-be, but with proper supervision, a complication-free pregnancy with a healthy baby can result. Do the results of this study prove differently?

Certainly, mothers with cancer may wish to consider this additional information but in general, I don’t think a cancer survivor determined to reproduce should let this stop her. What do you think?

Here Are Some Helpful links:

WebMD

Cancer.net

Guardian.co.uk

I miss sleeping on my stomach.

Throughout pregnancy I laid on my left side as the American Pregnancy Association and most doctors recommend. This prevents compressing the inferior vena cava, which runs along the right side of your body. It also avoids putting pressure on the uterus, which happens if a pregnant woman sleeps on her back. Finally, sleeping on your left side increases the flow of blood and nutrients to the placenta.

I realized how much I miss sleeping on my back the other day when a pregnant friend of mine asked about a comfortable sleeping position for the late stages of pregnancy. Since I’ve been breastfeeding, I avoid lying on my stomach because I’ve been told it can slow milk production. It would be uncomfortable to lie on my stomach, anyway, as my breasts fill up with milk about three hours into the night. So it’s been more than a year than I’ve slept on my stomach–formerly my favorite sleep position!

But back to my friend’s question: what are the most comfortable sleeping positions in the second half of pregnancy when your belly seems to get in the way no matter how you turn?

The answer lies (no pun intended) in pillows — and lots of them.

If your partner doesn’t mind and there’s room in your bed, you may want to place a pillow behind you to keep you from rolling onto your back in your sleep. As your pregnancy progresses and you get larger, the pressure on your uterus from lying on your back may wake you. And it’s not that easy to roll back onto your side.

I found it comfortable to lie with my legs bent and a small pillow between my knees, too.

Finally, the third—and some people may say the most important – pillow should go under your abdomen in front of you to support your belly. Personally, I also liked clutching a pillow to my chest. It made me more comfortable and helped alleviate the tenderness in my breasts.

If you have a full-size body pillow you can use it to support most of your body to keep you comfortable. Since pregnant women tend to be warm all the time you’ll want to opt for one with a cool linen cover.

If you are also suffering from heartburn, the American Pregnancy Association recommends sleeping propped up with pillows. I know pregnant women who slept sitting up in an easy chair because it was the only way they could get comfortable. Hopefully the pillows will help you and you won’t have to go to such extreme measures.

Pregnancy goes by so very quickly. Before long you won’t need pillows to help you find unusual but comfortable sleep positions. Instead, you’ll spend half the night be contorting to fit yourself and your spouse around a co-sleeping toddler who is taking up more room than anyone could imagine for a three-foot tall human being.

One of the most common problems spotted at the 20 week ultrasound is placenta previa. Placenta previa is where the placenta is nearby, or actually covering some or all of the cervix. It’s a potentially dangerous condition because if the placenta covers the cervix, it blocks baby’s way out, requiring a cesarean section to deliver the baby. And more seriously, as the cervix dilates towards the end of pregnancy, the placenta can be torn and bleed, which can be life-threatening to mom and baby.

Complete or partial placenta previa, where the placenta covers at least a quarter, or even all of the cervix, occurs in around 1 in 200 pregnancies, and requires careful monitoring by your doctor.

And more common is a marginal placenta previa, where the placenta is close by, or touching the cervix, but not actually covering it.

At 20 weeks, when the placenta is relatively large compared to the size of the uterus, many women appear to have placenta previa. The ultrasound technician will note the position of the placenta, so your doctor is aware and can discuss it with you. The doctor will probably tell you to avoid intercourse, heavy lifting, and strenuous activity. Your husband will be thrilled that he has to do the vacuuming instead of sex.

Several moms I know, including me, had marginal placenta previa at 20 weeks. At my next obstetrician appointment, the doctor explained what it was. The position of the placenta is largely random, but there are risk factors to placenta previa, including previous cesarean sections, a history of placenta previa, and it’s more common in older moms. Apparently, smoking or using cocaine also increases the risk, my doctor told me, raising one eyebrow. What? I’ve never smoked and the only kind of coke I know comes in a red can with a swirl on it.

The good news is that for most women who have marginal placenta previa at 20 weeks, as your uterus grows, the placenta gets further from the cervix and you’ll likely be given the all-clear to get back to normal activities by 24-28 weeks. Your doctor will schedule another ultrasound to check the position of the placenta at that time. If the placenta is now clear of the cervix, then vaccuming, etcetera are back on.

I had another ultrasound at 25 weeks, and like 90% of moms with marginal placenta previa at 20 weeks, my placenta was in a normal position, and the rest of my pregnancy went smoothly, except for having to think of other excuses to not vacuum.

If you are pregnant, and experience any vaginal bleeding, get checked by a doctor asap. If you have been told you have, or may have placenta previa, it is important to let the doctor who examines you know, as they will need to take extra precautions when they examine you to avoid causing any damage to your placenta.

Pregnant moms all do this, rub their bellies, and think about, talk to, and sing to their unborn babies.If you are pregnant, next time you are talking to your bump, remember there’s something else in there that’s almost as special as your baby – the baby’s placenta. It’s an amazing organ that connects you and your baby.

The purpose of the placenta is to collect oxygen, nutrients and antibodies from mom’s blood, and send them to the baby. It also filters the baby’s blood and sends waste out to mom’s bloodstream to process. It’s a life support system for the baby.

I was very fond of my placenta. At my five month ultrasound, the technician told me I had a low-lying placenta. In other words, the placenta looked like it might be blocking baby’s way out. “Don’t worry”, my doctor said. “They usually move out of the way. We’ll check again in a month, but avoid any heavy lifting.” I had a lovely month of lying on the couch watching soap operas and my husband doing the vacuuming, until it had moved out of the way at the next ultrasound. Boo.

So my placenta lead a quiet life until my son was born and it was ejected too. Most hospitals throw placentas away with the trash, although they’ll wrap it up for you to take home if you want. Some hospitals have a contract with cosmetic companies, who buy the placentas, then add placenta extract to expensive face creams. They are very popular in Europe and South America.

OK, you took your placenta home. What next? I have a friend with a three-year-old son, and a three-year-old placenta in her freezer. She’s not sure what to do with it. Suggestions include planting a tree over it, frightening future girlfriends with it, and eating it. Eww! Stuff that’s been in the freezer a year tastes nasty! And what would you do with it? I don’t think you can buy Placenta Helper in the supermarket, although Wikipedia has a small collection of placenta recipies.

It’s not all that weird of an idea, most other animals eat their placentas after birth for nutrition, and for hormones it contains that helps the mother’s body recover from the birth.

Westerners may not give much thought to placentas, but other cultures rever the placenta and have special ceremonies for burying it. Other cultures dispose of it as quickly as possible and believe bad luck comes from interacting with a placenta.

The tradition of burying the placenta with a tree on top of it comes from Hawaii. The Hawaiians planted the tree so that the tree could grow along with the child. I think that’s the prettiest thing to do with a baby’s placenta.

Another thing you could do, is to take a large sheet of paper or card to the hospital, and take a print of the placenta. Laying the paper on the placenta will make an imprint. A keepsake, to go with baby’s first footprints.

What did you do with your placenta? Are you pregnant and have plans for yours? Or do you have any ideas for the three-year-old placenta?

When I was in labor with my son I lost a lot of blood. The same thing happened with my daughter?for one reason or another my placenta got stuck and the doctors had to go in and retrieve it. Yes, I said doctors (plural) as opposed to doctor because at one point I think I had three doctors standing there taking turns, frantically trying to retrieve my placenta. This was all while my poor husband stood there, mouth agape, wondering why everyone was panicking and why there was so much blood.

Okay, everyone together: Yuck!

The same thing happened with my son, and although I was a little more prepared for it I can?t say it was really any less scary. I?m not telling you this to make you nervous about childbirth, and the odds of your placenta getting stuck are probably pretty slim. The reason why I pass this story along is because I think it?s a great illustration about how you can read every pregnancy book and spend hours watching A Baby Story, but sometimes things just happen that you may have never even heard of. I had certainly never heard of something like this, and I didn?t understand just how serious it was until I noticed that my doctor?s hands were shaking. By the way, your doctor?s hands shaking is not so comforting.

The moral of the story is this: Expect the unexpected. I?m not saying that you should be utterly paranoid and lose sleep worrying about what might happen (you need as much sleep as you can get right now, trust me). Instead, what I?m hoping is that you can do your best to just roll with the punches when it comes to childbirth and later with caring for your baby. The less panicked you are, the better you can focus on the task at hand?getting that baby out of you and into your loving arms.