A post-mortem examination of your baby and of the placenta may help to find out why your baby has died. Although it does not always find a definite cause of death, it may still answer some question. Here are a few examples of why a post-mortem might be useful:
- It can confirm or change a diagnosis.
- It may find conditions that have not been diagnosed before.
- It can exclude some common causes of death, such as medical
- problems with your baby, infections or growth restrictions.
- It can help assess the chances of problems happening again in a
- future pregnancy.
- It can help provide information about a genetic condition.
- It may tell you the gender of your baby.
Even if your medical team already suspect the cause of your baby’s death, a post-mortem might confirm this.
The post-mortem showed that there was something wrong with my placenta and it had stopped working. This means the amniotic fluid wasn’t being produced and the baby wasn’t gaining weight. – Sophie