Has anyone had bad treatment at A&E when miscarriage happens?

[Tacoma17]

Me and my partner were over the moon when we found out I was pregnant. Unfortunately I had a few days of noticeable tummy ache and dismissed it as everyone said it isn’t uncommon, it can be everything growing and shifting around!

Today started bleeding heavily, guessed it was a miscarriage as I’ve had one before. I called 111 for advice and was advised to go to my local A&E, cause of covid-19 it’s understandable I had to shout from a distance why I was there,

I was seen quickly buy two ladies, I then gave them a urine sample, and they said I wasn’t pregnant I was confused it’s just a period, I was just 2 months late. I was then asked if I had proof of the pregnancy tests which I did. And they then went on to say Clear blue wasn’t the best best brand and the digital ones aren’t to be going by. Even though I had explained The THREE in the picture were separate tests line up from different shops and stages throughout the day.

They sent me for a scan.. I waited a hour in pure agony, waiting to bleed out and shit myself it gets like! To then have a lady come out and say she’s read my notes no point doing a scan and to go home a rest. At this point I was so upset my partner came and collected me.
Has anyone be treated the same? I’m feeling extremely low! I had no other information given to me just left to question myself. I’ve had more information given to me after getting my ears pierced 15 years ago. 🥺

Pavlova

Well in my case first port of call is 111. They sent an ambulance who too me to a&e.

*took

@HoppingPavlova, not everyone has a complete miscarriage. I've been sent home by people with your attitude and have ended up with a infection, feeling really ill and luckily my DH wasn't working away from home that week. I was taken back in, finally got a scan and then had a D&C and antibiotics on a drip. Each time I haven't been the only one. Speaking to other women, my experience isn't unique.

I've been hospitalised three times because a scan/x ray wasn't done. It's cheaper to do them and better for the patients.

I think women are treated very shabbily for all things maternity. There's an expectation that we should just get on with levels of discomfort that men wouldn't stand for.

@HoppingPavlova OP was told to go to a&e by 111. She will be far from the only woman who has been advised to do so. Maybe take it up with them?

I am unclear as to why you would expect a member of the public with no medical training to be able to independently make a clinical decision as to what type of treatment they need or to ascertain by themselves that they do not in fact need treatment, in the event of sudden heavy unexplained bleeding during pregnancy.

Generally heavy bleeding is not unexplained, in that it’s a miscarriage, that’s what happens and is normal and is distinct from bleeding that is life-threatening.

111 will advise A&E for a paper cut. That won’t ever change as it’s tied up in liability issues. It’s general basic education that pregnant women need but there is a gap. Similarly to education as to when to rock up to maternity when in labour, they need the same but at the other end.

Yes, in 2010 I was pregnant and I started spotting on and off, brown blood. Went to the doctors hoping to be referred for a scan, but the doctor wouldn’t refer me as I had stopped stopping, he said have you taking a pregnancy test which I had and it was still showing positive. He just said nothing to worry about, even though I had been spotting brown blood on and off for 2 weeks. Then after 2 days started spotting again so got a appointment with a female doctor, it was male the first time she referred me straight away and I did have a mmc and the baby measured the week I started spotting.

If you're typical of the medical profession pavlova I'm not surprised women are so confused. We get admonished for going in, admonished for not going in, admonished for going too late or too early.
Exaggerations about paper cuts aren't helpful. Yes there should be more public education but making women feel stupid isn't the answer.

In any case it's maternity professionals who give us the information we do have. Who else are we supposed to trust?

@HoppingPavlova it's not "mystifying" then why women present at a&e - it's because they're told to and also that they're not given information. These are both failings of the healthcare system, not personal failings of the people who use it.

Bleeding is "unexplained" for a patient until a medical professional explains it. Women don't know what treatment options there are, including when treatment is not necessary, until this is explained by a medical professional. Saying "there needs to be education" is fine but who is responsible for that education if not health professionals?

OP doesn't mention anything about a&e being responsible for her pregnancy loss: she says that she wasn't given guidance or indeed an explanation as to clinical decisions, and also that the information she gave was challenged. How on earth is she supposed to access the knowledge you yourself say should have when healthcare professionals don't provide it? She was there, right in front of them: there's the opportunity to educate.

I'm actually pretty fucking disgusted at the idea that a pregnant woman who starts bleeding is expected to know whether or not she's having a miscarriage, whether or not she needs intervention, whether or not there's something else going on and that if she even asks to be seen she is somehow uneducated. Ffs no wonder our healthcare provision is ranked on a par with eastern European systems if @hoppingpavlova is in any way representative of the calibre of staff within it.

Once. My very first miscarriage. I’ve had 5

The doctor prodded my stomach and said it was probably because I was underweight and that’s why I possibly miscarrying (I was! But still)

He hummed and aahhed but finally sent me up to the maternity ward where I was put in a private room and the midwives were lovely.

They reassured me it wasn’t my fault, and just kept popping in and out to make sure I was ok.

They even let my dh in earlier than the visting times after I had my scan which confirmed I had lost my baby

I didn’t bother going to hospital for the rest of them

There was nothing else they could do. It was neither an ‘accident’ or ‘emergency’ and there is no treatment.
You would have been better off recovering at home with sympathetic family, they don’t have the time at hospital.

111 will advise A&E for a paper cut. That won’t ever change as it’s tied up in liability issues this is very true.

I didn’t go to a&e, I phoned the GP who told me to go to the EPU as they had a miscarriage clinic. It was those staff who were unsympathetic and spoke to me in the middle of a waiting room (it wasn’t even the EPU waiting room). It really was an awful experience.

I have had three mcs, all very different. The first one, despite being “early” and according to a previous poster therefore “routine”, ended with me in intensive care.

There is and should be nothing “routine” in pregnancy loss. Just because it happens to 1in4 pregnancies does not make it any less devastating to women who are losing their baby.

I’m “lucky” to have always been treated with compassion, and horribly sorry for the women in this thread who haven’t been.

I’m really sorry for your loss OP.

Unfortunately it accords with my experience last year. I couldn’t believe how unsympathetic pretty much all of the medical professionals were, certainly more unsympathetic than when I’ve needed medical care for other reasons. I went for a dating scan at 9 weeks and found out I’d had a missed miscarriage about a week earlier. I was told I should have a d&c or whatever they’re now called then told 4 hours after waiting to get booked in they weren’t prepared to do it because in involved a GA and that was risky for me (which was true). So I went home then went back 2 days later to get the tablets as nothing was happening. I waited 6 hours to be seen. I got the first tablet (which I think softens the cervix) and had to go back 2 days later for the further tablets. Another long wait. I got the tablets and had to wait an hour to check my blood pressure. I felt really sick so was given an anti sickness tablet, sent home and told to take paracetamol/ ibuprofen as pain relief if needed (I can’t take the latter due to kidney issues). I was told anything stronger was unnecessary. I live 15 mins from the hospital and was having contractions the whole way home. Over the next 24 hours I had contractions and miscarried- there was a lot of blood (it certainly was not just a heavy period). I felt the foetus pass the next morning and the bleeding slowed. I was particularly distressed that when I asked what to do with the foetus they had said just flush it down the toilet. That still really upsets me even though it is what happens. 3 weeks later I did a pregnancy test as instructed- positive. So I went back for a scan and there were retained products, about 20 percent. I had my 2 year old DC me and no childcare so I couldn’t take the tablets there and then- there was no way I could have looked after her during the earlier part of miscarriage. So I went back the next day, waited over 8 hours and got the tablets. I was pretty distraught by this point as it was my 5th time at the EPU In 4 weeks and they were just so mean. Maybe it’s their way of dealing with it- they see it every day so it’s no big deal to them. I got the tablets again but they didn’t work until 5 days later when I was back at work, so I had the final part of my miscarriage in the work toilets (luckily it didn’t hurt and there wasn’t as much blood as the first part, although enough still that it was pretty traumatic).

I found the whole experience a lot worse because of how I was dealt with- very unsympathetically. I have had a lot of experience of being a patient in the nhs over the last 10 years and I’ve pretty much always been treated with kindness and care. I don’t know why early pregnancy loss is so different. There seems to be a perception that you should just grin and bear it. I have a super high pain threshold but I needed my prescription strength codeine left over from previous surgery to get me through those first few hours of the initial miscarriage. It’s strange because whenever I’ve any non pregnancy issues they’re falling over themselves to give me the strongest pain relief possible- I had to stop them giving me morphine a number of times when I felt it wasn’t needed and paracetamol was enough.

I talked to my GP afterwards about my experience and she used to work in the EPU. She said unfortunately that’s the way it is, I just left it as I didn’t have the energy to complain. The only thing I gave feedback on was the fact that the birth centre yours started from the EPU waiting room- completely insensitive. I also think it is appalling that women were say in the EPU waiting room bleeding all over the chairs and floor whilst miscarrying- this is London in the 21st century and we can’t even provide them the privacy of a bay/ private area to lose their baby. The whole set up appalls me.

It’s so sad that sometimes, after a long time doing the same job and seeing the same stuff day after day, you start to become less “human” somewhat. I work in trusts and estates and each new client soon became “just another dead person.” This feeling is usually knocked out of you once you start going through their personal effects.

Any miscarriage is the loss of a potential life. I’m sorry OP.

I was taken to a&e in an ambulance because I bled copiously having a miscarriage at 11 weeks (I mean a lot - like a murder scene all over the bathroom). Once there I got left in a corner and ignored. I needed to go to the bathroom and no one would help me (still bleeding heavily) so I ended up making a huge mess staggering to a bathroom. While I was walking there covered in blood several nurses walked past and none so much as asked if I was ok.

Eventually after 2 hours I was moved up to a gynaecological ward. There I was parked in a small room for another 2 hours and again, ignored. No one had so much as offered me a sanitary towel, so I was just covered in blood and crying. None of the staff who passed me sat in a wheel chair asked if they could do anything or if there was anyone with me. I asked repeatedly when I would be seen, each time the person said they would check, walked off and never returned.

Eventually a consultant spotted me, went a bit bonkers at the amount of blood I has lost, got an injection to help the bleeding stop and got me scheduled for an urgent D&C.

I avoided returning to that hospital for years afterwards.

NHS hospitals are abysmal at caring for women undergoing a miscarriage

I used to work in A&E and would never treat someone badly, but I was in a different A&E department doing an extra shift and there was a poor young girl (around 17) on her own, and just left in a room on her own, in pain and ignored. The staff were so dismissive and awful. I got her some pain relief and tried to make her comfortable, but I was so upset by how she was treated. This was only a few years ago, not in the last century. Still remember it and feel sorry for her. It was a disgrace.

Ps. I did not go to a&e for all of my 3 miscarriages. Of course it is not always necessary and often isnt.

But when you pass out on the toilet having lost a massive amount of blood, your DH is going to ring 111. They are going to send a ambulance, and the paraemedics are going to correctly identify you need treatment for retained products.

I needed treatment. And I was left for four hours, alone, and not even offered a sanitary pad.

Its fucking inhumane.

But tbh my experiences of a&e are poor.

My baby daughter was taken there with breathing trouble (prem, bronchiolitis). We were sent home. The next day we were being rushed to the regional PICU with DD intubated & on a ventilator. To this day I wonder if if they had kept her in and got her oxygen earlier, could we have avoided the following 2 weeks of hell in intensive care?

I'm actually pretty fucking disgusted at the idea that a pregnant woman who starts bleeding is expected to know whether or not she's having a miscarriage, whether or not she needs intervention, whether or not there's something else going on and that if she even asks to be seen she is somehow uneducated.

I totally agree with this. Some of the attitudes on this thread are shocking - and from HCPs as well.

Oh OP, I get you.

I miscarried at 11 weeks. The blood got through but the other stuff got stuck in my cervix which would not open.

I too was sent home but I blacked out with the pain and the ambulance was sent.

So if this happens to you....

I was put on morphine and 20hrs later had an ERPC. The pain was unlike anything I’ve ever had they gave me gas and air in the ambulance to take the edge off.

When I was triaged at A&E I had to get a speculum-viewed by someone from the Mat unit and they confirmed my pain was to do with my cervical inability to open.

After the op I felt brand new; but the lasting physical effect was exhaustion for about 3 weeks, it was fucked up, never mind the emotional upset.

OP your description of wanting to shit yourself is consistent with my experience and that’s the content of your uterus trying to get out but can’t, not at that point anyway.

I just never thought a miscarriage could be so painful, I am not doing this to scare you but if the pain gets unbearable do call 999 as sadly I think that may be the only way you can be sure not to get ricocheted home again.

Sorry

I'm so sorry for your loss.
Sadly what's devastating for you is routine for them.
You'll be in shock right now and feel awful emotionally. Take care of yourself - you need some tlc.