When the nurse called from the delivery room, her voice was quavering—and not because she felt bad about waking me on that winter night. She was upset because she’d never seen a woman bleed so much.
As a gynecologic oncologist, I’m trained to understand how blood flows in the pelvis and how to remove growths from the blood vessels that feed the uterus. Obstetricians call me when they need help with postpartum bleeding they can’t stop. Usually the causes are simple: an artery lacerated during a cesarean section or a tear in the vagina after the birth of a large baby. But sometimes the bleeding is more unusual. This was one of those cases.
