When Swati Agarwal went into labour in mid-June, she and her husband Sudhi were as excited as any first-time parents could be.

However, the ordeal that Swati went through following her delivery of their daughter Yuvan at the Lakeshore General Hospital has them hoping raise awareness of a relatively rare medical condition that even doctors might not know to look for.

After the delivery, Swati complained to the medical staff of pain in her abdomen and bleeding.

“I kept saying to the doctors, ‘I'm feeling pain, pain, pain,’” said Swati.”I showed them, (and they told me) ‘Oh, it’s because you delivered a baby. Swati, you delivered a baby, it’s all part of it.’”

She was released from hospital after five days, but soon after, she was back in the ER with a fever of 102. An ultrasound revealed there were still pieces of placenta in her uterus. She soon had surgery to remove them.

“I was really horrified, because it’s not a small thing,” she said.

The Lakeshore General refused to comment on specific cases, but said generally, when there are complications during birth, a mother is kept longer at the hospital and when she’s released, she’s told what to do, what to look out for and when to consult a doctor.

Clive Ziegler, acting chief of the OB/GYN department at the Jewish General Hospital said that such a case is relatively rare, but can happen.

“It’s not routine practice after we deliver a placenta to make sure it’s all gone,” he said. “To do that, you have to do something fairly intrusive. You have to put your hand right in the uterus. Some doctors do it as a matter of routine, but do not do it as a matter of routine because it increases the risk of infection.”

Ziegler added that an ultrasound right after birth isn’t always useful, even if doctors suspect something. But if doctors do think there is something left behind, they should tell patients to be on the lookout for fever, discharge and chills, and should return to hospital if those symptoms occur.