Scottish perspective

[Fussyfeatures]

I'm new to all of this but can anyone give me their perspective in Scotland?

I'm in central Scotland and onto my 5th pregnancy after 4 m/c's and still having to fight for everything I get.......and not even sure what I'm supposed to be asking for/entitled to!!

Have had the chromosomes and clotting blood tests which came back fine. Was advised by consultant that I could be scanned at 6 wks then tracked to see if they could gain any knowledge (as m/c's all happening early) but just had to have a fight with EP to get them to agree to scan me at 6 wks.

Want to go well armed so any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[VJay]

Hi fussyfeathers so sorry for your mc's. I'm up in the Highlands and had 2 mc's in 2008, I was told that if I had a third they would begin looking into it, but not really sure what they would do. Thankfully all was well after that though I did have bleeding in the next pregnancy during the early weeks and the hospital did scan me at 7 and 9 weeks, but that was because I rang them concerned, well terrified, due to the bleeding.
I wish you lots of luck with this pregnancy and hopefully someone else will be along that is a bit more helpful

[sotough]

hi, you don't say how old you are or whether you have any children, but if you are seeing a specialist, it would be worth asking whether they think it is worth prescribing you clexane (heparin) experimentally (some of the London fertility specialists, such as Taranissi, prescribe it for miscarriage patients as a matter of course, whether or not they've tested positive for any blood clotting, since they believe it can't do any harm and might do some good). Also if all your tests have drawn a blank (did they test for Factor V Lieden? MTHFR? I ask because the NHS down here in London don't test for those things, but Factor V is a fairly well known cause, and can be quite treatable.) it is worth looking into NK cells in future - though hopefully there won't be any need as this pregnancy will be a success!
like you i have had four miscarriages in a row and am lucky enough to have got referred to Lesley Regan's specialist unit at St Mary's on the NHS. They offer weekly scans from six-seven weeks until the 12 week mark, so you could ask for weekly monitoring. It's not so much that they can do anything to stop it going wrong; rather that if it does go wrong, you're not in the dark about it for ages; and if it's going well, it helps you get from one week to the next, psychologically.
wishing you really good luck - i know how incredibly hard it is to be pregnant after so many losses. I have just got to 16 weeks pregnant, on clexane and steroids (for possible NK Cells) and it is still scary, but the first 12 weeks was the hardest and longest time in my life.

[sotough]

ps i should add that i got the clexane even though i didn't have an official blood clotting diagnosis. One test out of four repeat tests was 'strongly positive.' the rest were negative, but our private specialist said i should try it anyway. he prescribed it for the first three months, and the nhs later agreed to continue it.

[Fussyfeatures]

Thank u VJay & Sotough....! Also sorry to hear about your experiences. Just had scan today & am measuring 6 + 4 with a heartbeat which is very exciting but also still very scary! I saw who I assume was a midwife (she never said) before & after the scan - she basically wanted to fobb me off to be booked in & scanned at 12 wks but I explained I was hoping for more than that - she grudgingly agreed to book me in for another scan at 9 wks so here comes the longest 2+1/2 wks! As you say, not that anything can be done but to be scanned more regularly would be so much more helpful psychologically - I think there's a real lack of understanding about that side of things. Thanks for all the technical tips......I have read a lot about Lesley reagan's clinic & have used st mary's practices to try & convince my own mat services to do more. Think the problem is I'm not in a specialist clinic & although I have the history they still don't seem that interested to try & find out what might be going wrong with me. It annoyed me that they basically implied that if I lied about having pain or bleeding I could be scanned as often as I like!! I'm 30 btw.......been trying now for 3yrs - everyone says I'm still young but sometimes it doesn't
feel that way! Good luck with your pregnancy sotough, I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for you! :-)