Sep 28, 2026 · 31 min · 12 segments
In this Mailbag episode of Healthful Woman, Dr. Nathan Fox answers listener questions about some of the most common—and confusing—pregnancy and childbirth concerns. He discusses placental lakes and…
Is this true? I've listened to about 1,000 birth stories and never heard anyone talk about one before.
When I went to my midwife appointment a few weeks later, she said she hasn't had any women one before and hadn't seen them on her patient's ultrasound reports.
I would love to hear any information you have on placenta lakes, as I'm sure as an MFM, you've come across them I've heard having many legs can be a sign of another issue.
For a little bit of background, right? So the placenta is basically the organ that is used to do a lot of things in pregnancy, but one of them is to transfer nutrients from the mother to the baby and transfer waste products from the baby to the mother in pregnancy.
So how does the placenta do this? So basically the placenta is a big organ glob, for lack of a better word, that attaches to the wall of the uterus.
And on the baby side, there's the umbilical cord that goes from the baby's belly button.
And so there's blood flow from the mother that goes to the uterus and sort of goes into the placenta and sort of bathes the placenta in the maternal blood.
And then on the baby side, the blood goes into the placenta and is in these little blood vessels.
Is this true? I've listened to about 1,000 birth stories and never heard anyone talk about one before.
When I went to my midwife appointment a few weeks later, she said she hasn't had any women one before and hadn't seen them on her patient's ultrasound reports.
I would love to hear any information you have on placenta lakes, as I'm sure as an MFM, you've come across them I've heard having many legs can be a sign of another issue.
For a little bit of background, right? So the placenta is basically the organ that is used to do a lot of things in pregnancy, but one of them is to transfer nutrients from the mother to the baby and transfer waste products from the baby to the mother in pregnancy.
So how does the placenta do this? So basically the placenta is a big organ glob, for lack of a better word, that attaches to the wall of the uterus.
And on the baby side, there's the umbilical cord that goes from the baby's belly button.
And so there's blood flow from the mother that goes to the uterus and sort of goes into the placenta and sort of bathes the placenta in the maternal blood.
And then on the baby side, the blood goes into the placenta and is in these little blood vessels.
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