Do you know about “Sawhak” August 22 18:15

Have you ever heard the word “sawhak”?
Correctly, it is a disease during pregnancy called “normal placenta early exfoliation”.
Although it may not be familiar to you, the placenta in a normal position is a disease that can be severely related to your baby's life by peeling off before birth.
"Sawhak" suddenly attacks a pregnant woman who was thought to be born safely.
Doctors and researchers are moving to protect the baby from this disease.
(Kyoto Broadcasting Station reporter Matsubara Atsushi)

Suddenly a tummy child ...

“I thought I would never get ill, a rare disease.”

A woman in her 30s living in Suita City, Osaka.
As a man, when I was about to give birth to the second child, I was suddenly attacked by stomach pain.

It is said that it happened early in the morning, while the eldest daughter was sent to the nursery, and then shopping.

“At first, it was dull pain and not regular. As the pain gradually increased, I called my husband and the hospital and talked, 'I think I'm probably labor pains. "

The woman decided to watch her for a while at home, but the pain became even stronger, and she was hit by severe abdominal pain around noon.

The stomach is hard like a board, and it is said that it was impossible to move without it.

Soon, I went to the hospital with my husband who came home, where I was told that my son was dead.

A woman who was not familiar with the disease at the time recalls that she should have taken the terror felt more seriously.

“I thought it was already the first month, it was a full-term birth, and the rest would only be born. I think that I should have decided to go to the hospital as soon as possible and check the safety of the baby, rather than judging it by myself.”

“Sawhak” is difficult to prevent and treat

The woman was affected by Sawhak = “Early placenta early exfoliation”.

It is a disease that is likely to occur in women in late pregnancy who are about to give birth.

The placenta in the womb will come off before the baby is born, and oxygen and nutrients will not be sent to the baby.

Progression may leave symptoms such as paralysis in the baby, and in some cases it can be life-threatening, so treatment is required as soon as possible.

There is no clear cause for the early removal of the placenta and the treatment is not easy.

There are symptoms that are considered risk factors that lead to early placenta exfoliation, such as “pregnant hypertension syndrome” and “immediate premature birth”, but on the other hand, any pregnant woman can suddenly develop it.

Dr. Takeshi Kanagawa, an obstetrician and gynecologist, tells me that it is difficult for doctors to deal with.

“One of the most disgusting illnesses in pregnancy. One is sudden and unpredictable. The other is that it also happens to pregnant women who are not at risk of illness.”

Doctors embarking on enlightenment

However, awareness of this disease is not high.

A group of obstetricians and gynecologists in Osaka Prefecture surveyed 1,700 pregnant women in Osaka Prefecture for three years until 2016, and only about 40% of pregnant women knew about the disease.

In addition, most of the respondents who learned about the disease were “Internet” and “books and magazines”, and only 10% answered “medical personnel”.

It is necessary to have medical staff know about the disease correctly.

Doctors in obstetrics and gynecology in Osaka have begun to raise awareness for pregnant women.

From this fiscal year, we began distributing leaflets to pregnant women who came to the hospital at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at a hospital in the prefecture.

The flyer introduces typical symptoms of illness, such as genital bleeding and abdominal pain, and little baby movement.

And if there is any symptom that applies to you, I call you to contact the hospital even at night.

“Sometimes I still don't know about the illness, but if I have a suspicious symptom, telling my doctor at an early stage may help me save my life. First, let the pregnant woman know about the illness and symptoms. Is it the first step to overcome this disease? ”

New research for early detection

Research has begun to discover diseases at an earlier stage.

A group of doctors and researchers at Osaka University is developing a sheet-type sensor that is attached to the stomach.

Multiple sensors that capture weak electrical signals when the uterus contracts are attached to an elastic sheet approximately 30 cm square.

According to the group, one of the typical symptoms of normal placental early exfoliation is the “plate-like stiffness” that causes the uterine contraction to strengthen and the tummy to harden like a plate.

This symptom can be seen as the disease progresses, but the group believes that using the sensor could catch the symptoms at an earlier stage.

To date, the group has successfully applied the sensor to approximately 100 healthy pregnant women before childbirth to analyze the data and successfully extract uterine movements due to labor.

With conventional sensors, only the frequency of uterine contraction was known, but with the sensor under development, in addition to the frequency, it was possible to capture the strength of uterine contraction and changes that had previously been difficult to investigate. .

By further analysis, it may be possible to tell whether the contraction of the uterus is normal or due to a disease.

In the future, the group wants to collect data from pregnant women who have developed a placenta premature detachment to identify the uterine movements that are specific to this disease.

“I hope that if we analyze the contraction of the uterus in detail, we will see the difference. Although there is a long way to completion, many people can judge the disease as early as possible and accurately. I want to make it a device that can save you. ''

From knowing “sawhak”

Did you know that Sawhak = early placenta detachment?

I was embarrassed and didn't know about the disease until I interviewed this time.

Normal placenta premature detachment is a disease that can occur suddenly even if there is no abnormality in previous pregnancy screening.

"Genital bleeding"
"Sudden abdominal pain and persistent tummy tension"
"There is little movement of the baby"

If you experience these symptoms later in pregnancy, suspect the possibility of “an early placenta detachment” and contact the hospital or gynecologist even at midnight.

I hope that knowing the name of this disease and its main symptoms will help save as many babies as possible.

Satoshi Matsubara, reporter of Kyoto Broadcasting Station