PPH and REDHEADS?

Specialties Ob/Gyn

Published

Hi everyone! I'm doing a little assignment on myths vs research in the workplace. Can you help me out? I work in a very large tertiary care centre where we have 600 births a month. It is a teaching hospital where lots of research is conducted. However, I often encounter the belief that women who are red-heads tend to bleed more excessively. This belief results in these women haveing their iv's in longer etc. I'm just wondering if anyone else has encountered this and what you feel about it? Thanks for you help!!

I am a true redhead, I've had bright red hair since the day I was born as is the rest of my family (mother, brother, sister, children, etc). I've had four kids and not one problem with PPH. Neither did my mother or my sister. Although every delivery nurse I've encountered has prepared themselves for it. I would like to see percentages of redheaded PPH'ers vs blonds and brunettes. I think you may be suprised at the results. I don't know that redheads are more likely to have PPH but maybe when one does we take more note of it.

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Specializes in Clinical Risk Management.

Another true redhead chiming in here...I didn't experience PPH following my delivery but I did wind up with anemia that wasn't caught or treated until I returned to work following my leave time.

Prior to a surgery last month, I was advised that, since I am a redhead, I stood a very good chance of having drains inserted due to the amount of bleeding they expected. Fortunately, that didn't happen. Go figure.

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Specializes in OB, lactation.

i am a brownish redhead and i've never had a lot of bleeding... as a matter of fact a guy thought i was an alien for a moment when he was trying to draw my blood once! nothing came out. i also have to get a pretty good cut to bleed very much, and i also don't bruise easily at all. in other words, i'd say i'm the opposite if anything. my mom is very redheaded and she had ideal deliveries with the three of us (i was 17 and present when she had my youngest sister).

another curious note... i read in prevention magazine once that a study did find that redheads experienced more pain than other people and that they needed more pain meds to get to a good comfort level... that's also something to keep in mind.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Redhead weighing here on this (5 year old) thread. It's not true all redheads hemorrhage post partum or post-op. I am living proof. Lost less than 400cc w/each birth, including my csection!

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Not EVERY redhead has a pph, but they often do bleed more and that is just a fact EVERY OB nurse who has been in it awhile can tell you for certain. Pain is something that is a personal thing. Studies often tilt toward the viewpoint of the studier..Anesthesia swears that there is no such thing as an "epidural dip" either, but simple science can back that one up. If you are someone who didn't have a post partum bleed problem and are a redhead..Count yourself fortunate...

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Every nurse? I don't know about that.....

And I never said "every" redhead does not bleed or does. I can only talk about what I have seen with my own eyes. And my experience is, many people hemorrhage you will NOT expect to! This what makes OB so scary at times.

I have had many redheads NOT bleed at all, yet women who were "low risk" healthy, young ones, dang near bleed to death after an NSVD, right there on the table---- or even 12 hours later, when you think they are "ok". I do wonder, where are all the studies on this? Can you link me to a few?

Or are these mostly anecdotal? I realize my posts are only anecdotal; I just have not gotten my hands on a good study that says redheads bleed more than others do, across the board, with all other things being equal!

--- and I have been an OB nurse for 7 years. So I have been at it a little while. :)

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One more natural redhead chiming in...had two difficult pregnancies but had no excessive bleeding with either one. Actually, everytime I've donated blood, I've had to pump my fist the entire time because I would stop filling the bag when I wasn't pumping. I do bruise easy...so go figure??

Every nurse? I don't know about that.....

And I never said "every" redhead does not bleed or does. I can only talk about what I have seen with my own eyes. And my experience is, many people hemorrhage you will NOT expect to! This what makes OB so scary at times.

I have had many redheads NOT bleed at all, yet women who were "low risk" healthy, young ones, dang near bleed to death after an NSVD, right there on the table---- or even 12 hours later, when you think they are "ok". I do wonder, where are all the studies on this? Can you link me to a few?

Or are these mostly anecdotal? I realize my posts are only anecdotal; I just have not gotten my hands on a good study that says redheads bleed more than others do, across the board, with all other things being equal!

--- and I have been an OB nurse for 7 years. So I have been at it a little while. :)

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

It has been commonly-held by many in the OB community that we should "make 2 or more units available cause she is a redhead"----but I have yet to see in my own practice redheads bleed more than anyone else, all risk factors being equal. I just dont' see it MORe among redheads...I do see people I though healthy hemorrhage massively for no apparent reasons---until we go to the OR.

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so I could see that there might be a genetic tendency towards coagulapathy. (Hemophilia is a recessive-gene trait too, for example.)

Of course, I could also see it being a case of anecdote triumphing over fact. Maybe redheads are just more memorable. (Every time I see Maureen O'Hara in 'The Quiet Man' I can see how that would be the case.)

It would be interesting to see what the research shows.

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I am a redhead and I had a c-section, no unusual bleeding after it.

I have also read the study about redheads experiencing more pain, and my doctors know this already-- I am always given more anesthesia during operations because I have so frequently woken up before the surgery is over. When I had nerve conductivity tests done, it showed that my nerves carried impulses about twice as long as they are supposed to... that might be an idea for another study to back up the 'redheads feel more pain' theory-- maybe we just have more conductive nerves.

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Specializes in NICU.

I wonder if it could be related to the fair skin and/or freckles that frequently accompany red hair. Most redheads are fair and freckled but not all.

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Another redhead for this "unofficial" study:

I've had two c-sections and, while I did not hemorrhage, I did bleed a little heavier than average (whatever that is). I know with my last section, my uterus was boggy and I heard my OB say "figures, she's a redhead!" I think I lost about 800cc, hard to remember the exact number after all the MSO4 :p

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