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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think I can refuse the blood thinners (36 weeks pregnant)

52 replies

Icouldseetinsel · 18/01/2024 18:22

I'm planning a homebirth. This will be my 3rd baby. I'm 36 weeks pregnant. I've been having scans every two weeks to check everything is OK to go ahead with the homebirth. My midwives are saying everything is fine, the consultant I saw the last two times is saying everything is fine to go ahead...
I went in yesterday for a planned scan and saw a different consultant who said everything was fine initially but then rang me a few hours after I'd left and left me a message saying she looked over my notes and now wants me to take blood thinning injections.
She said I have a couple of risk factors with my age and weight...
I am 36 and I am overweight but not obese or anything.
No other doctor or midwife flagged this with me.
I think if I take these blood thinners it then won't be safe to have a homebirth due to risk of PPH blood loss. For me that is a bigger risk than clotting as I've never had any issue with clotting in the past and there's no actual indication I do now either.
AIBU to refuse this prescription?
Does anyone have any personal experience of this situation they could share?
This has made me very stressed because obviously I don't want to put my baby at risk in any way but I think this is a pointless prescription that would mess up my birthing plans for no reason.
I should just add that I am under the perinatal mental health team due to previous post partum psychosis that I had after my first birth and alot of trauma surrounding that birth and the hospital. My psychiatrist and midwives suggested I have a homebirth and all seemed happy with the safety of this. So it's just this one doctor out of nowhere whose done this and she's not really given any solid reason why.

OP posts:
Littlegoth · 01/02/2024 16:13

I don’t envy your choices. No matter what there’s always the risk of the cascade. It’s partly why I opted for cesarean (although to be transparent I have no wish for a baby to ever come out of my vagina!). Obviously with my own condition I would always advocate for the thinners, but even with my clotting condition the risks to me were relatively small, despite my age (38 and 41) and being 35+ BMI - for example even with the thinners an elective c section gave me a 1% chance of a clot/stroke etc, an emergency would have raised that to 4%. It was 40-60 whether an induction would end in emcs. Have they been able to provide you with your specific risk percentile? You’ve got the final say on whatever treatment you have. X

Icouldseetinsel · 01/02/2024 16:24

No they haven't and I did directly ask. V confusing that they all seem to have different takes on it too. I know its ultimately my decision but it's a hard one... it's stressed out my DH too as one of his friends wives had a blood clot and had a stroke during labour and has been paralysed ever since. She had no risk factors it was just random!
Basically now if anything goes wrong I'll end up feeling guilty whatever choice I've made...
I hope I go into labour tonight or something and then it's just taken out of my hands! X

OP posts:
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