ElizabethHiems t1_jdq21hs wrote on March 26, 2023 at 8:18 AM

Reply to comment by Mama_Mush in TIL, the placenta that forms with a fetus isn't created by the mother. It grows from the fertilized egg and some fetuses actually develop outside the uterus attached to the intestines in the body cavity. by darw1nf1sh

How exactly would labour start? Did the oxytocin receptors form on the tiny uterus? Is the lower segment there? If a baby grows in your abdomen then you don’t deliver by caesarean and you won’t go into labour.

Source: 20+ years experience and actually looking after someone this happened to.

Mama_Mush t1_jdq3axm wrote on March 26, 2023 at 8:37 AM

There is no tiny uterus if the fetus is formed outside of it. The hormones can kick in and cause contractions but the baby needs to be removed by c section, as you said.

ElizabethHiems t1_jdq5nhj wrote on March 26, 2023 at 9:11 AM

Not by c-section. The full name for a c-section is lower segment caesarean section. That means performing a horizontal incision into the lower segment of the uterus to deliver the baby. That means there has to be a womb developed enough to have one.

If the baby is outside of the uterus then the birth will be surgical but it will not be a caesarean. Multiple specialist surgeons are required.

One of the most significant problems faced by the surgeons is that the womb is designed to have a placenta stuck on it. The rest of your body is not.

When the placenta comes away from the womb at birth, it creates a large area of trauma. The criss cross fibres of the uterus clamp down on the blood vessels cutting off their supply. It also decreases in size to about the height of your tummy button. Bodies are amazing.

But the rest of your body has no such mechanism so all the removal will cause trauma that has to be repaired.

Your womb normally weighs about 60g, but that increased to 1kg by term. If the baby has grown outside the womb, the womb still weighs 60g.

If you have two wombs and get pregnant in one of them, only one will grow. It has to have a baby in it to grow. If there is no baby in the uterus, labour will not start. There is no mechanism to tell the body it is time.