If your doctor diagnoses you with a retained placenta, they may want to remove the placenta by hand. They will often try another method first. Your doctor will give you an epidural or anesthetic medicine and manually separate the placenta inside the uterus. Surgery.

How do you manually remove a retained placenta?

Gently use an up and down motion to establish a cleavage plane and then sweep behind the placenta and separate it from the wall of the uterus. Move carefully and sequentially from one side to the other around the back of the placenta, until it falls into your hand.

Can retained placenta come out on its own?

“If the placenta or a part of the placenta does not spontaneously deliver within 30 minutes after the baby has delivered, a retained placenta is diagnosed. Normally the placenta will separate and deliver from the uterus on its own once the baby has been born,” explains Sherry Ross, MD, OB-GYN.