If your practitioner told you that you have an enlarged placenta, you might have what those in the medical profession like to call placentomegaly: a placenta that's grown disproportionately bigger than normal. That means the placenta is either thicker than it should be or weighs more than your doctor thinks it should (or both).
The placenta is the pancake-shaped organ in the uterus that serves as the baby's lifeline for nutrition, oxygen and waste removal. It's usually one-sixth of the baby's weight and has a thickness that corresponds roughly to the baby's gestational age. For example, a fetus that's 20 weeks along would be nurtured by a placenta about 20 millimeters thick. At 24 weeks, the placenta is around 24 millimeters thick, and so on.
The sizes of placentas, however, vary widely from pregnant woman to pregnant woman. A better-nourished mom-to-be tends to produce a bigger, more productive placenta (but still within normal range) than that of an undernourished mom-to-be.
Although an enlarged placenta is not tremendously common, it's also not very rare. A few factors that can result in an enlarged placenta include smoking, certain infections in the uterus and certain maternal medical conditions, such as anemia, hypertension or diabetes.
The good news is that often an enlarged placenta means nothing more than, well, a larger-than-expected placenta. And unless your practitioner is concerned about it, there's little reason to worry. The best gauge of a baby's health is development at a steady pace, and your doctor will certainly keep close tabs on that.
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