Rare pregnancy complication has put UK women into ‘emergency surgery’

Women have had to undergo major emergency surgery, including a hysterectomy, when medical staff failed to detect they had a rare but potentially fatal complication of pregnancy.

Scores of women have come forward to tell their stories of how they were affected by placenta accreta spectrum (PAS) since the launch in February of a campaign to raise awareness among NHS staff and mothers-to-be of the dangers it poses.

One of them lost so much blood while giving birth that she has had to give up working as an NHS operating theatre nurse and suffers from PTSD.

Another lost six litres of blood and blames her daughter’s cerebral palsy on the stroke the child had while hospital personnel were battling to save her life after an emergency caesarean section. Others have suffered permanent damage to their bladder or bowels.

PAS is associated with a history of C-section birth while assisted fertility using in vitro fertilisation also increases the risk.

It occurs when the placenta, which gives the foetus nutrients and oxygen, grows too deeply into the wall of the woman’s uterus and blocks some or all of the cervix. This makes the usual separation of the placenta from the uterus during birth difficult.

One hundred women who are concerned about how medical teams dealt with their PAS have contacted Amisha and Nik Adhia, who set up the Action for Accreta campaign. The couple have collated the women’s experiences into a dossier of stories that vividly illustrate how often the condition goes undetected and the appalling physical consequences for those involved.

The 100 cases reveal “a dangerous gap in maternity care” and “systemic failures” that should prompt UK hospitals to do much more to train staff how to spot and treat PAS once it is diagnosed, say campaigners. Politicians from all the main parties at Westminster are supporting their call for a major overhaul in how the NHS manages the condition.

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Source: The Guardian, 6 May 2026