The Verdict

The afternoon after the funeral, I received a call from my doctor's office. The doctor told me that they had received preliminary pathology results back and that both placentas showed signs of bacterial infection. I had a doctor's appointment scheduled for the following week and I should find out more then.

At the doctor's appointment the following week, the doctor went through each line of the pathology report with us. Essentially four things happened, any of them could have happened first and caused all of the others: (1) my cervix dilated,  (2) the membranes ruptured (my water broke), (3) Kaylie's placenta abrupted (separated from the uterine wall), (4) a bacterial infection formed from bacteria normally present in the birth canal (but usually prevented from entering the uterus by the cervix). The doctor suggested that perhaps Kaylie's placenta abrupted first, then the blood clot that would have formed between the placenta and the uterine wall would have attracted the bacteria, but said that we would probably never know for sure what happened. He said that placental abruption is a rare occurance and having had it happen once does not make it more likely to happen again. He also noted that whatever happened was likely caused by the extra stress of carrying twins and that a singleton pregnancy would be likely to have no complications.

A couple months later, we decided to consult with a high risk obstetrician to see if they could provide any more insight, so that we would be well prepared when we were ready to try again. This doctor had the same pathology report, but suggested a different cause. She also said that we may never know exactly what happened, but "the good news is" that it almost certainly happened because we were having twins ("a woman's body is only made to carry one baby, it's not made to carry multiples") and that we would likely have no trouble with a singleton pregnancy. She suggested what may have happened was that the babies were growing too fast for my uterus to keep up and the pressure forced my cervix to open a tiny bit, thus allowing the bacteria to enter. Once the bacteria was inside the uterus, my body detected an infection and, in an effort to protect me, initiated labor. She recommended cervical measurements weekly from week 18 to 24 next time around.