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. 🥺

@HoppingPavlova I used to work for NHSDirect. And our algorithm says go to A&e for heavy bleeding and pain. This sometimes does need to be managed. The blood loss is rarely dangerous, but pain relief if needed.

I once had a patient having a miscarriage and upgraded her from the GP (what can they do?) to A&e. I told her 3 times to go as she wanted to stay at home and manage there. I told her 3 times, but she wanted to wait a little, I said ok if that's your choice. She went to A&e in the end and her husband put in a complaint about me because she'd opted to stay home. The A&e staff told him I was negligent!

I’m not sure what you expected them to do?

Sorry for your loss

@HoppingPavlova Maybe the medical professionals dismissing the women should be educated! Instead of educating women who are in pain and bleeding not to seek medical attention, even if just for pain relief and reassurance they’re not going to die. There is no need to be rude and dismissive to a woman who is miscarrying.

Hi request an urgent blood test, it tests for hormone levels. It needs to be done ASAP. It’s for hcg levels.

I dont think that the OP or anyone else that presents at a&e is expecting them to make it all better and save their pregnancy but most people have no idea what is happening, they know they were pregnant now they are bleeding, possibly lost their baby but need some advice and guidance.
A little bit of compassion and empathy would help.
I know now that the best thing is to rest at home and if any signs of infection occur to get medical help but people panic and are understandably distressed.

Very sorry for your loss 💐 my first pregnancy 15 years ago, I was given a scan after some bleeding and put in a small room with another lady, the doctor came in with a translator phone and told the other (non English speaking) first she had miscarried, poor lady lots of crying and sobbing then turned to me and said the same thing to me. We were both then shuffled out of the room with a leaflet. It's hard to hear in any circumstance I guess.

I was directed to A&E, was eventually admitted and had a D&C. The staff in A&E were very matter of fact and said they wouldn't worry until it was happening for a third time, and that I shouldn't worry either. This was exactly the approach I needed, as it was effectively normalising something that you then find out a lot of women have gone through, but very few have discussed. I can understand that some women wouldn't react well to this blunt approach by the staff, but it certainly helped me to understand this was just unfortunate and that it was very likely there was nothing wrong with me.

I’m so sorry for your loss,

I miscarried at 11 weeks, I knew something was wrong and ran to the bathroom and saw blood, I knew I was having a miscarriage.
Hospital told me to only call if I started getting blood clots, come 1am DH had to drive me up to the hospital, A&E sent me and my DH to the early pregnancy team who checked my cervix and confirmed it. When I stood up I almost passed out and started bleeding heavily, she had to put me back on the table and take everything away, signing the forms after was awful.

The lady who saw me was so sympathetic and kind, I was a wreck! I was only 20 and devastated, they wanted to keep me overnight, the Matron sent hubby away as I placed on a female only ward.

It was freezing cold, I wasn’t allowed anymore blankets, I was alone, heartbroken and the cannula in my head wasn’t put in right so I had added pain and the nurses wouldn’t listen to me.
I barely got any sleep as the nurses had to keep waking me to use the bathroom, come morning I wanted to go home, I was surrounded by elderly woman all chatting happily whist I say crying my eyes out, I wasn’t allowed to leave as the doctor needed to see me.

Finally my dh and parents arrived and literally had to fight to see me, they eventually agreed to let DH in who bought me clean clothes and something to snack on.

The Matron basically told me to get over it it happens, she was so harsh, my mother was furious, she honestly had such an awful attitude, no empathy whatsoever.

It got to the late afternoon, I was still in pain, hungry and completely fed up, I was still so upset so I discharged myself and the matron was again very rude and huffed and puffed at me.

It’s not hard to show some empathy to someone who is clearly heartbroken and going through a difficult time, dismissing it makes it more painful.

A&E isn’t the best place for pregnancy loss unfortunately, the gold standard would be direct referral to EPU or the gynae ward. As you had a negative test and bleeding it would suggest a complete miscarriage so they wouldn’t offer a scan, scans are often limited and need to be used for the most urgent cases.

In my experience, the EPAU isn't any better at dealing with pregnancy loss, I was sent to hospital with a slight pain in my side and the tiniest bit of brown spotting with my 1st pregnancy - they scanned me, told me it was ectopic and then sent me back to the waiting room with all the other excited new mums awaiting their scans while I was crying my eyes out. I had to have an operation and nobody gave me much information at all and the nurses all kept telling me to just stop crying. There was a wonderful woman who I believe was a HCA who sat with me and let me cry though - she was lovely.
With my 2nd I went for an early scan (due to previous ectopic) and they simply told me there was no heartbeat. The sonographer was so cold when she said it. They gave me some tablets to get rid of what was left and sent me home with no information.

I’m sorry. I’ve had lots of early miscarriages sadly. The first was the furthest along. I was treated very abruptly. I think A&E should be educated to think about the mental health implications. It’s really not about lack of time as often it takes the same amount of time to be kind and to be unkind. Even just the 2 mins to say to a woman “I’m so sorry, there’s nothing we can do. Medically this will probably happen naturally. Go home, take care of yourself and let your employer know you’ll need time off work. Book an appointment with your GP if you need support” would be so, so much better than how woman are treated.

EXACTLY the same thing happened to me 20 years ago in a Coventry hospital. I had no proof but had taken several tests, was 9 weeks pregnant. Before digital but i was and am 💯 certain of the result.

To make it worse they told my then bf before me, I found out when in the early pregnancy ward room seeing a consultant and her first words were ‘so, as you know you’re no longer pregnant’. I didn’t know, he did. I broke.

I couldn’t stay for tests after that and miscarried again 5 years later at 16 weeks. Their first question ‘why didn’t you tell us you’re diabetic?’ I didn’t know, I could have prevented the second miscarriage had I known. I have two lovely kids now and my blood sugar control is excellent, especially in pregnancy!

Im so sorry you were treated that way OP. Esp having to shout why you were there.

This is quite long so skip to the end about careopinion.org if you dont want to read it all.

Sadly there is much wrong with NHS esp the way women are treated who are miscarrying in A&E and unfortunately its a system that means that women are often pushed from pillar to post to get care. Please know that its very frustrating for us but we know its not your fault. There are also plenty of nurses who are very unpleasant and not very compassionate.

We once had a women presenting for triage in A&E who was miscarrying, she had phoned her GP and was advised to attend the Early Pregnancy clinic (very reasonable) but when she got there they asked her if she was bleeding & because she was & hadnt actually been seen by the GP first before coming, their protocol was to refer to A&E "in case she was unstable" .......

......so ....she had to walk over to A&E from several buildings away - almost 1/2 a kilometre walk (hospital is spread over large area) for to wait in an A&E queue for us to check her pulse and blood pressure and then refer her straight back!!

We organised a nursing assistant to take her back in a wheelchair (it beggars belief that if they actually thought she was unstable then they put her life at risk by as she would likely have collapased on the long walk over!!)

Please make a complaint about your treatment , things will not change unless problems are highlighted. One of the easy ways you can do this is to do it via careopinion.org = basically its TripAdvisor for the NHS

Your complaint is public (you post anonymously but do need an email address to register) and anyone can read them and they go to delegated members of management in the areas that you mention and they reply to you on the post.

It is best if you can write down the issues separately and succinctly in bullet points that you want addressed so they can either be answered or you can highlight for example that point 3 hasnt been answered. They will often ask you to make contact with them directly in order to address your concerns & people often dont want to do that but if they have a number of similar complaints highlighted (they cant delete them) then it often shows publically an area that can be improved.

If you go to careopinion.org you can type in any health board and read all the posts for that area and get an idea and feel of how it looks.

Not at A&E, but at the scan 2 days after bleeding started. The women doing the scan was so abrupt and had not an ounce of empathy. She then called in a colleague to look at the scan and discussed it with her as an interesting learning topic, totally ignoring me and my feelings. Was told to go to a ward a couple of days later and I sat there 5 hours while other people were called in and out repeatedly. Eventually walked out in in disgust. I think they could have handled the whole thing so much better. A bit of kindness and empathy would have been nice.

I went to A and E with my first MC (I’ve had four) as I was on heparin at the time and the GP was concerned with the sheer amount of blood. I was put on a trolley in a corridor and forgotten. When I was sent to EPU they just said “most women wouldn’t even know they were pregnant at 7 weeks” :(
Unfortunately this experience was the same for the next three (apart from A&E)
You have my sympathies 💕

I think I was lucky with the medical side of things but before the miscarriage was confirmed I kept being told they were sure everything was fine. I was sure it wasn't and can't believe they really thought it was fine either.
They weren't properly clued up about what happened to the remains so couldn't answer questions, which I think is basic information, and didn't fill me in on how wrecked I would be for days physically afterwards. In retrospect it's obvious you'd be in pain and struggle physically but a heads up would have been good.

Sorry, just realised you specified A&E OP. I wasn't at A&E.

My story.
I had a mahoosive bleed at 15 wks. As i stood up to wipe myself after a wee the blood just started sliding out and covered my legs and my feet and my flip flops and started to puddle on the floor. There was flipping pints of it.

Your first reaction is to panic. Especially at the 3 month + mark. It's easy to say ''what do you expect a miscarriage to look like?'' but the thing is you're not expecting to miscarry. You're about to make lunch and then you're standing there with blood suddenly out of you and you can't get enough loo roll to stem the flow and clean up and of course you want to see someone who might know exactly what's happening. You want someone to tell you if it's fine to go through this at home and what point you might need intervention.

DH drove me to A&E and i put in a waiting room chair for a couple of hours before someone moved us into a cubicle for an hour or so more. i bled more and cried more and so did DH. When someone arrive it was a young doctor who was very unsure of what he was talking about and had no idea what to say to us. He was looking at me as if i had 2 heads to be honest.

I had no idea about EPU units or scans to see if the baby was still alive. (And this was 6 year ago and baby no.4 !!) I didn't know what to ask for and he clearly didn't know what to offer. In the end he wanted me in overnight but they put me in the 'head and neck' ward ( ) and i got there at about 11pm. Obvs no one there with any experience of miscarriage so they just sent DH home pulled the curtains round me and that was that. I hadn't eaten for hours (i was about to get lunch ready when i bled) and had had one glass of water.

I tried to get out of bed in the night and fainted so they put me on a drip, which then did that backing up thing where the tubes fill with blood but i couldn't get anyone to come and see to it. By morning i hadn't eaten for about 20 hours and felt dreadful. But the bleeding had stopped. At 8am ish a nurse looked in through the curtains and found me in tears. He asked why i was there (weeping in the head and neck ward) and i told him i thought i'd lost my baby yesterday morning. He was and and rushed off. He came back after 10 mins and bunged me in a wheel chair and wheeled me straight for a scan! My baby was alive and no one could see any reason for all the blood. I was in floods of happy tears and DH arrived back in the ward just as the nurse was getting me back in the bed. DH thought the worse. When I told him the happy news I cried, DH cried and the nurse cried! He said head and neck ward was never usually this emotionally charged and he would never cope on the maternity ward!

When i next saw my midwife she was . And there was not one thing about it put on my notes for her to see

for all the women here who have been treated badly. These experiences never leave you.

Yes I had a dreadful experience, I was bleeding heavily at home and passing large clots so I was advised by the midwife to phone 111 so I did and they told me to go to ane. I was left in the waiting room from and for about an hour and a half bleeding into a plastic bag with a towel in, as my many pads were sodden with blood as were my clothes, thenwhen I was called through the doctor/nurse looked shocked and asked where I was bleeding from, I said I'm having a miscarage and from that point it went a bit better but I dont think the woman behind the desk at ane took my miscarage very seriously. Although so drama queen came in about 10 minutes after me pretending to not be able to breathe and got straight through as she was making a scene

I’ve had 3 and one of them I was on holiday at the time and on a plane for some of it.

Never occurred to me to phone 111 or go to A&E.

I find it interesting how differently people deal with situations like these. I am in the camp of pragmatism for want of a better word. There’s not much that can be done for a MC and you’re better off in the comfort of your own home than on a hospital trolley, especially during a pandemic.

Sorry for your loss

A few years back I had a miscarriage and the nurse said to me good girl when I had disposed of the baby naturally she also said your young go home and try again. I think maybe they deal with it every day it's just part of the job now and sometimes people don't mean to be so insensitive.

I was told not to go in - passed out the fetus at home at about 13 weeks. Didnt really know what to do. Stupidly went to work next day then went home without telling anyone due to cramps, nearly passed out from heavy bleeding. My lowest point in life. I staggered home, rang up maternity unit who got me a consultant appointment the next day and a scan - it was awful seeing nothing (just after 12 week scan) but I felt better receiving some care. All the midwives and male consultant were sensitive and lovely.

I had a miscarriage at 6 weeks before, it wasnt nice but less blood loss. Saw a female GP who was cold and quoted some statistics about how common it is and I was fussing about nothing.

I'm sorry for your loss and the way you were treated.

Sorry, just to back up what has been printed earlier. You need to request blood tests to check hcg levels. Please. Trust me they should be checking for an ectopic pregnancy

Yep. I was asked if it's possible I could have an STD as that may have caused the miscarriage (not sure this is even true). I said no I'm married, both DH and I were tested after we met, and the junior doctor said "yes but he could have cheated on you". This was after being left alone in a side waiting room lying in an uncomfortable seat bleeding for 10 hours with no one checking on me.