The Pesky Placenta Society

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The Pesky Placenta Society

💥 Helping you hope again after trauma
📣 Social worker & preeclampsia survivor Hi! Join me on my journey of hope, healing and humour!

I’m Sarah – Aussie social worker and survivor of preeclampsia, birth trauma and Lyme disease. The Pesky Placenta Society is a space dedicated to sharing education, hope and humour after birth and other trauma. Although I will always have a soft spot for those who have had their own pesky placentas, The PPS is for everyone; whether you’ve had a traumatic birth, a great birth, a birth that’s in between, or none at all – you are welcome here! Alongside preeclampsia and birth trauma, I’m also passionate about stories of mental health, chronic illness, social work and justice, and so much more.

07/09/2025

🚨 Vulnerable post alert!

Choosing to not have another baby was the hardest decision I have ever made 🥲

It's raw and it's sensitive and it's hard to talk about, which is why it's important that I do.

The emotional back-and-forth that comes with family planning after preeclampsia and birth trauma was *a lot* 🥴

I spent months agonising over what felt right and wrong and neither and both...it was exhausting.

There were probably hundreds of questions that I asked myself in that time, and I decided to share some of the biggest ones in case they are helpful to even one other person 💜

Remember - someone else's choices aren't a judgement on yours. If you read a post like this and feel defensiveness bubbling up, take a moment, sit in it and figure out why 🫶

What was right for me could be wrong for you, and that is absolutely OK!

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03/08/2025

Birth trauma affirmations ✨

These are some of the things I wish someone had said to me in the days, weeks and months after my whole world had turned upside down 💥

So, I'm going to say them, in case you need to hear them right now:

🚫 It was not my fault - sometimes birth trauma happens medically, and sometimes due to human error or wrongdoing. What it's not, is your fault.

✅ I will feel safe again - it is incredibly hard to feel safe in your body, mind and in the world after a traumatic birth. It won't always feel that way.

🐣 I'm the parent my baby needs - no matter what you currently do or don't feel for your baby, or the work you may need to do to be OK, you are who they need and deserve.

😢 I'm allowed to grieve - birth trauma is a type of loss that is worthy of your grief and any other feeling that needs to be named and processed.

🙅‍♀️ I don't have to get over it - you may feel pressured to view your trauma as a blip in time that you need to move past. Know that you don't.

❤️‍🩹 My recovery matters - you are as important as your baby, and deserve to take time to heal, find joy and just be. Take the time you need.

There are so many that I could include here! If any come to mind, chuck them in the comments so they can reach someone who may need them 🫶

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15/07/2025

This is NOT a dig at my C-section surgeon 🚫

She was amazing, gentle and she saved my life. I was even considering (albeit in my preeclampsia/drug addled brain) naming my son after her if he surprised us by being a girl 😅

Despite all of that, it hurts knowing that my son's first ever photos weren't with my husband and I, but with my surgeon 📷

One of the few vivid memories I have of the birth is lying on the surgery table, looking at my surgeon holding my baby up and smiling for the camera and feeling how backwards it all felt...

Again, I'm NOT angry at my surgeon. She was making sure our photos were as nice as they could be, and I appreciate that. Without the photo of her holding my baby, I wouldn't know what he looked like at birth at all 🤦‍♀️

And, it's still a moment that stuck with me as a reminder of the unfairness of birth trauma. My Lil Nug's first ever photo should have been with me, but it wasn't. And it will always make me sad 🥺

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04/07/2025

There aren't a lot of words that can describe how heavy it feels to almost die 🥲 For some, they were aware in the moment that they were close to death. For others like me, they knew it was dangerous, but didn't find out until after the emergency subsided how close they came to losing their life 🤏

No matter which category you fall into, a near death experience can leave you feeling confused, scared and anxious 🥺

Preeclampsia and hypertension are often invisible, meaning that the life threatening emergency can be a surprise. I found it incredibly hard to move past the idea that I'd come so close to dying and not even felt it. That reality left me terrified of my body, and like I could be dying at any time and not know 🤷‍♀️

Feeling safe in the world after a traumatic birth is hard enough, but learning to feel safe in your own body after coming close to death? An extra blob of challenge. The world is a very scary place when you can't find safety anywhere, including your own body and mind 🚫

For me, I needed therapy, time and medical tests to be able to feel safe again. Having confidence that my organs had been restored and that my blood pressure was stabilising helped be start to trust my body again. I needed help to find safety in my world again, and it took time ⏳

If you're still there, know that you will heal, and you will feel safe again ✨

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28/06/2025

It's been nearly 3 years since my son was born and my life changed forever 🐣

Despite those years, ANY movie or TV show that depicts a birth makes me teary. Specifically, when the baby cries, which is our cue to know that they're born and all is well.

As soon as I hear that shrill, squealing cry, tears spring to my eyes no matter how fine I felt even seconds beforehand 🥲

One of the few things I can remember for certain is hearing my son's first cry when he was hastily pulled from my body in a rush of pain and fear. I heard his cry, and it meant so many things in that moment...

It meant he was out, and OK enough to at least cry. It meant that we could both get the help we needed to survive. It meant that hopefully, things wouldn't get worse inside my body.

I don't remember it as a happy moment, but I do remember it, and I can't truly say that about most of my son's birth 🚫

I think that's why I get emotional, even in the silliest of comedies: for me, that cry signifies what was AND what would never be 🤷‍♀️ I remember every feeling that flooded through me when I heard that cry, and I feel sad for all of the feelings that should have been.

I may never get to a point where hearing that cry doesn't make me emotional, and I'm OK with that! It's a part of my story, and it reminds me how grateful I am to still be telling it 🫶

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24/06/2025

Hello! I'm Sarah, and welcome to The Pesky Placenta Society 🌻

In July 2022, I was diagnosed with severe preeclampsia (aka, a pesky placenta!) I had my son at 35 weeks by emergency C-section and almost died when the preeclampsia progressed. I spent some time in the ICU, and my Lil' Nug spent some time in the Special Care Unit 🐣

I was left with a broken mind and body that needed to heal...and I couldn't do that alone. And neither can you 🚫

I am passionate about sharing stories and the impact that trauma has, especially in the perinatal space that is too easily swept away in a haze of postpartum priorities and expectations 🫶

When you combine my social worker soul with a neurodivergent mind and lived experience of trauma...you get The PPS ✨

23/06/2025

Where the heck have I been? Not here, and for a few reasons that I've shared a bit about above ☝️

I'm back, and working on renewing this space to reflect where I'm at and what I hope to bring ✨

I've missed you! Thanks for being patient 🫶

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10/04/2025

It's been a while since I've regularly posted here, and I can't promise that's going to change just yet...but I did want to share this, because it's one of the reasons why this space has felt hard to show up in 🫶

For the past 6 months or so, I think I've known deep down that another baby wasn't on the cards for me. Whenever I'd think about it, I never had any gut instinct of when, or any excitement about the possibility 🚫 I had mentally resigned myself to the idea that at some stage, it would happen.

When we ticked over into 2025, I did start to feel something, but it wasn't a joyous anticipation. It was dread 😭 When I thought about it, I felt scared. There are a lot of reasons, but to name the big ones:

I am at a higher risk of preeclampsia again, and I couldn't bear the thought of even a 1% chance that I could die 💀 I terrifyingly came so close last time, and I don't know that I'd have the same amount of luck on my side a second time.

If I put the actual birth and possible illness part to the side, I knew that the even smoothest of pregnancies would still be high maintenance with weekly appointments and being closely monitored 🏥 I wouldn't enjoy being pregnant at all.

I've also been increasingly unwell this year with a mystery neurological problem which has had significant impacts on my mobility and ability to parent like I want to 🥺 I do now have an answer to this as of yesterday which I'll share a bit further down the track once I've processed it all! What I will say is that I can partially blame preeclampsia, the gift that keeps on giving ✌️

When I finally spoke to my husband about it, he looked relieved and said that he had been thinking the same thing 🥲 For the first time in months, I also felt relief wash over me, even though I was actively crying.

Since that conversation, the relief has grown to match the grief. I hope one day it might overtake, but I also accept it might not 🤷‍♀️ I would rather grieve a "what if" than regret a reality...my life and family is more than enough for me.

I'll always be at least a bit sad, but I'll be *here* to feel it ✨

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15/02/2025

I've had a pretty extended time away from this space...it wasn't intentional at first, but I came to realise that this space was making me anxious and frustrated more than it was filling my cup 😓

I don't know if this is something that others have noticed or if it's just the algorithm doing me dirty!

These are the main things that I realised were contributing to why I needed a break ⬇️

Misinformation 🚫 I felt like I couldn't log on without seeing some kind of ick in the first few scrolls 🤦‍♀️ It's hard for me to not have an emotional reaction when I see medical misinfo, especially about preeclampsia and related trauma...I would literally be dead if I followed some of the advice I've seen on Instagram, and my son probably would be too.

Inclusion 🚫 Hospital vs home, vaginal vs C-section, breastfeeding vs bottles, the list goes on and on. I found myself on many an account or post that made me feel like a failure, or like I wasn't welcome and I quickly got tired of that feeling!

Hope 🚫 The general vibes just seem...different. I don't know if there's been an actual shift or if it's my progression as time passes after birth, or something else, but I feel like I'm missing the kind of content I joined this space to see and create 🤷‍♀️

There is no singular person or account this is aimed at, so any feelings of defensiveness are probably something for you to spend time looking at 😉

I'll slowly ease myself back in, and be more present here again 🫶 This burnout is just one thing among many reasons I've been in the background for a while, and I'll share more of those as I feel ready to.

I'm curious to know if others have felt this too 🤔

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07/02/2025

Toddlers really do be passionate about the shapes of their foods ✌️

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23/01/2025

I've been pretty quiet here lately, and there are a few reasons why that wouldn't all fit into one post 🚫

But this has been a big one 👀 In the last few months, my sweet Nug has really wanted to see pictures of him as a "teeny tiny lil' baby" 👶 He found the scissors that were used to cut his umbilical cord, and has been curious ever since.

There aren't any photos of my son without some kind of cord or sticker on him until we got home 🥺 I found myself having to choose between pictures of him while we were still in the operating room, or pictures of him in a humidicrib...neither felt right.

I chose to show him a photo of him in the Special Care Nursery, using his tiny hand to hold my husband's finger 🥲 He got sad and pointed his NG tube and told me he wanted me to "take it off". I did my best to explain that when he was born, he needed extra help and that I did too.

I could see his little brain trying to understand, and it made me want to cry 😭 When this conversation happened, we were almost a year into a journey of trying to figure out some health stuff for him, and he has had significant distress in all things medical.

I'd watched his terror so many times, even in a quick trip to the pharmacy...and I've known deep down for a long time that it's tied to his birth 😓 Even though his brain doesn't remember, his little nervous system absolutely does, and I can see it get triggered anytime we go into a place that has that smell, or that lighting. And now he was seeing it for himself in photos and it made him sad.

His sadness has lessened the more he looks at these photos, but mine hasn't. It just wasn't a conversation I was ready for at 2.5 years old! But it happened, and part of me is glad that it has and that it's ongoing 💕

Birth trauma is a rough gig, even when years have passed 🫶

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24/12/2024

Birth trauma and special occasions can be rough 🥺

This is true not just for those who have a traumatic birth or a loss around a big holiday, but for people who are healing from birth trauma too ✨

Something like Christmas changes the very atmosphere in our lives; everything gets sparkly and jolly and full of cheer, and we start thinking about all the time we're spending with loved ones and so on 🎄 For the average person, December is a bit stressful and a lot exciting!

When you're dealing with post traumatic stress, it's a lot of pressure. You're trying to make sense of some hard and dark feelings while the world around you is lit up, and it feels all kinds of wrong 🚫

Whether you've just been through your trauma or if you're somewhere along the road of recovery, you're not alone 💪 This will be my third Christmas since preeclampsia came into my life, and I still feel uneasy as we go into it! Having one of the most precious experiences become a life threatening emergency has left me expecting trouble when good things happen, including a simple, ordinary Christmas 🥺

This community is here with open arms if the holidays are a tough time. You don't have to pretend here 🫂

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https://thepeskyplacentasociety.com/

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