Hospitalised for bleed at 24 weeks

[missmama]

Hi All

I was 24 weeks on Tuesday, when I went the loo there was blood in the pan and some, but not loads when I wiped myself.
I phoned the number on my notes for the delivery suite as it was 6 in the morning and they would be the only people around to speak too.
I was told to bring in all my bags, baby, labour and overnight ones. This is when I really started to panic as I have not bought anything for baby yet, I am not due until Christmas. I spent a whole minute throwing pj's clean knickers and deodorant into a bag before DH and I went to the hosp.
This is my 5th bleed since I was 12 weeks and the first time I have been asked to come in to the hospital. When I got there they gave me an internal exam to see if I was dilating, which was painful as I wasn't, a speculum for some tests and tested my water for infection - but found nothing except a little protein. They also took blood again.
The doctor and consultant then started discussing whether or not to give me steroid injections but decided to wait 24 hours so admitted me for observation.

I was discharged late yesterday (Weds) and told that everything was fine. All the tests had come back clear they were not going to do an emergency scan or give me the steroid injection but would book me into clinic at 28 weeks for routine checks and a growth scan.

But they said to go home and make sure all my bags were packed as soon as possible. And gave me all the usual warnings about coming in immediately if anything changed, if it happened again, I felt any pain or my waters broke which they seemed to be expecting to happen.

Sorry that was a longer post than I was expecting, but it was good to write it all down. I cried myself to sleep on the Tuesday night with the worry of the baby coming so early and then all the staff seeming to think that their is still a chance of it being really early.

[stroppyknickers]

I had this all the way through wth ds1. tiny bleeds, hospitalised/ scanned etc. I lost loads of blood having a planned csection but i don't know if that was related. the csection was unrelated. all i'm saying is, it may turn out fine. good luck, and ring your midwife if it happens again.

[missmama]

Thanks Stroppy. Feeling a lot better about it all today now that I am home and slept in my own bed.

I don't have a lot of faith in my own midwives TBH. The last time I had a major bleed she would not even speak to me on the phone until I had seen somebody at the hospital. As I was only 17 weeks at the time the delivery suite were not allowed to see me and I had had a dreadful experience at A&E with my first bleed at 12 weeks and ended up being told by the nurses to make a complaint about the doctor I really didn't want to go back and see them either. So I ended up seeing my own doctor as an emergency appointment. But he couldn't understand why I was seeing him instead of the midwife who was in the next office the whole time. So fun and games all round.

Sorry again. I do go on.
Glad everything worked out fine for you in the end.

[ajm200]

I had something similar twice in my first pregnancy and one at 29 weeks with this one.
They have never found the cause.

Take it easy and don't do any lifting or heavy housework for a day or two to let every thing settle down. You might get a bit of brown spotting and a few cramps if the blood has irritated your womb.. but I guess they warned you about that.

Glad you and baby are ok..

[ajm200]

Try and relax if you can, my first wasn't delivered til 37 weeks and then he had to be induced so this bleed doesn't mean your LO will be early.

They only make you take all the bags as a precaution. They don't want you to end up in hospital with a newborn and nothing for you or baby

[stroppyknickers]

omg missmama. sometimes it's a minefield seeing people depending what stage you are etc. glad you are ok. steroid injection was no biggie when i had it, just to develop the baby's lungs i think. not horrid for you.

[Highlander]

I had this with DS2, had repeated scans by midwives saying nothing was wrong. The alarm bell in the back of my head was the consultant saying during my amnio that the placenta was low and to get it thoroughly checked at the 20 wk scan.

Went in for elec CS and surgeon nearly cut through the placenta. I had a placenta praevia that was somehow missed, and it had started to fail.

Get a scan by a good consultant!

[pollyblue]

Agree with Highlander, a common cause of bleeding is a low placenta and I'm surprised they didn't scan you this time. Was anything said about the position of the placenta at your 20 week scan? If they are low they often move by the time the baby is due, but regular scans will be recommended to check its position, esp if you keep bleeding.

[missmama]

Placenta was nice and high at 20 wk scan. And everything else seems to be fine, its just that I keep having these bleeds and their doesnt seem to be any reason at all for them.
If ordered by the doctor it can take up to a fortnight to be scanned at my hospital. The consultant would have been able to order one sooner but not immediately.
I think I wsa panicked more by the debate about the steroid injection and then being told to pack my bags as soon as I got home, knowing that I would like to keep the baby inside at the very least 10 more weeks.

[HereComeTheGirls]

I had the same at 25 weeks..my DD was born at 36+3 and is now nearly 2 and fine!!

[poorbuthappy]

I was hospitalised at 26 weeks with funny pains (under consultant cos of ovarian cyst) and I had the steriod injections to help development along in case dd decided to come early or needed to be born.

If you do get the injection they probably won't tell you that there is a good possibility that your leg will go dead for a while afterwards and that you may well fall over if you try to stand up...

Concentrate on 1 day at time - and keep calm!
(not really relevant to the bleeding but wanted to say the bit about the injection!)

[KashaSarrasin]

I had similar bleeds with DS2 and was hospitalised several times. I did get a scan each time though and am a bit surprised they won't scan you! In my case the scans showed a clot in the placenta, but no-one could tell me the cause. DS2 was eventually born at 30+5 with a spontaneous labour a week after a bleed, which sounds scary (and to be honest it was scary) but he was tiny but fine and spent 5 weeks in SCBU. It was his due date yesterday (!) and he's now more or less the same size as a full-term newborn. As PPs have said though it's perfectly possible to go to term even with repeated bleeds, fingers crossed you will too.

Take it easy, try not to worry (I know, easier said than done!!) and contact the hospital asap if anything else happens, they will take good care of you.