Placental Lake in Pregnancy: What You Need to Know

Question
Hi

I recently went for my 19wk morphology ultrasound and the ultrasound technician mentioned that she could see a placental lake that measured around 3cm.  She said that it was an incidental finding, could you tell me if this is harmful to my pregnancy
jodie

Answer
The placenta is not comprised of blood vessels, but rather a series of "lakes" or "sinuses" containing blood that transvers between the fetus and the mother's uterus. It is quite normal to see a placnetal lake that is as large as 3cm. It is not harmful to the pregnancy and is of no significance. The tech merely happened to see it.