Chrissy Teigen: What It Means To Have A Weak Placenta & How Bedrest Helps – OBGYN Explains

Chrissy Teigen recently revealed that she's on ‘complete and total’ bed rest due to a 'weak placenta.' Now a top obstetrician explains why it's critical that she stay in bed until she gives birth.

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Chrissy Teigen, 34, got very candid during a Sept. 17 Instagram live and revealed that she has been “gushing blood” during her pregnancy and the only treatment for the scary pregnancy complication is total bed rest until her baby boy is born. The model, who went through similar issues while pregnant with her daughter Luna, 4, and son Miles, 2, blamed it on her “weak placenta.”

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Chrissy shared with her Instagram fans that she’s only allowed to get out of bed to use the bathroom and Dr. Thomas Ruiz, a top OB-GYN, tells HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY that the Cravings author is not exaggerating. The expert obstetrician, who is not treating Chrissy, explains. “When she says she’s in bed all the time except to use the toilet that is not an exaggeration. A lot of the times with these patients when the situation is so difficult where they are on strict bed rest we will often use a bedside commode because we don’t even want them walking to the bathroom or being upright at all for too long.”

The California based specialist also stresses that the heavy bleeding Chrissy described should be taken very seriously. “If you’re an OBGYN and you see placental bleeding there are two diagnoses that we think of right away: placenta abruption, where are you have a premature separation of the placenta from the uterine wall, or placenta previa where the placenta is actually covering the cervix so whenever the cervix dilates or opens it causes a separation from the placenta. Those are the two classic forms of placenta bleeding.”

Placental abruptions are “very dangerous,” Dr. Ruiz says, noting that a mom who suffers one could “bleed so much that she could severly hemorrhage and die.” In spite of the many advancements in modern medicine bed rest is still the go to treatment for pregnant women with placental abruptions or placental prevue. “That is literally the only thing we can do,” says Dr. Ruiz, “because when a woman is on bedrest, and specifically lying on her left side, the blood pressure is lower and it actually maximizes blood flow to the placenta.”

Although it might sound relaxing, bed rest actually comes with it’s own set of scary complications, says Dr. Ruiz. “Patients that are on strict bed rest go through so many emotional ups and downs. Psychologically, first of all you can’t get out of bed and you’re stuck indoors. And then, every time you have a small bleed or pass a little blood clot you are kind of wondering, ‘Is my baby going to be okay? Am I going to be okay? Am I going to bleed out?’ It’s very tough.” As if that wasn’t enough to be dealing with, Dr. Ruiz says anyone on strict bed rest is at risk for developing potentially fatal blood clots, known as deep vein thrombosis. “When we have a patient on bed rest we really worry about them developing clots in the  legs because a clot in the leg can break loose go into your lung and kill you. And deep vein thrombosis occurs more often in pregnancy then it does when you’re not pregnant. So combining that with bed rest it just something else to think about, something else her [Chrissy’s] doctors are worrying about. I am sure she has a good high-risk obstetrician taking care of her. Hopefully she will do well and the baby will do well.”