How I was treated at a and e for a miscarriage

[Rainbowscoming]

I’m currently going through another miscarriage and I’m feeling really let down by the care I’ve received at my local hospital on Tuesday i attended A&E in severe pain, which I would describe as 9/10. I was told the waiting time would be around five hours, but ended up being there for six and a half hours, most of that time sitting in the waiting room in agony.
I was in so much pain that I genuinely didn’t want to go home without getting some help. I was eventually offered morphine after waiting around two hours. When that hadn’t worked, I was then given paracetamol, despite having already started taking paracetamol at home alongside co-codamol.
Around four hours after receiving the morphine, I was still in unbearable pain and asked for more pain relief. What followed was honestly awful. I was passed from pillar to post, having to repeatedly beg for more medication. I was crying in agony and felt like I was getting absolutely no help. Eventually, after lots of asking, I was given another dose of morphine.
After my final dose of morphine and six and a half hours at the hospital, I asked again how much longer I would be waiting to see a doctor, as I’d originally been told five hours. The response I got was that there were still loads of people ahead of me.
At this point, I said I was going to go home for four hours, as I’d just had some pain relief, and try to get some sleep before it wore off. The doctor insisted that I stay, but I explained that I couldn’t continue sitting there in so much pain when I felt I wasn’t getting the help I needed. I said I would try to get some sleep at home and come back once the pain relief had worn off.
There was also very little communication throughout my attendance. Whenever I was told something was going to happen, whether that was a blood test, pain relief or seeing a doctor, I wasn’t kept updated. I constantly had to chase staff to find out what was happening.
What makes this particularly upsetting is that I’ve had two previous miscarriages, and on both occasions the hospital was absolutely brilliant. I was seen by the gynaecology team, treated with compassion and offered appropriate pain relief when I needed it.
This time, however, I was seen by a general doctor rather than gynaecology, and the whole experience was completely different. I don’t understand why the care was so different, especially given my history and the amount of pain I was experiencing.
On top of the physical pain, I’m dealing with the emotional heartbreak of another miscarriage. Sitting in a busy waiting room, crying in agony and trying to cope with losing another pregnancy, was honestly horrendous. I felt incredibly vulnerable and unsupported.
Unfortunately, after eventually getting home and managing to get some sleep, I woke up in agony again, feeling sick and nauseous. I’ve now found myself putting off going back to A&E because I simply cannot face another seven-hour wait and having to beg for pain relief all over again.
I understand the NHS is under pressure, and I’m not expecting to jump the queue, but surely women going through a miscarriage should be treated with compassion, kept informed and given appropriate pain relief?
Has anyone else experienced such a difference in miscarriage care depending on who they’ve been seen by? Am I unreasonable to expect to be seen by gynaecology rather than just a general doctor?
I’m genuinely considering making a formal complaint because I don’t think women should have to go through this.
I’ve taken myself down stairs tonight to cry in agony I feel like I’m in labour and want to scream but I can’t bring myself to seek help as atleast I have my hot water bottle and a bed to wither in

I am so incredibly sorry about what you are going through and you deserve far more compassion. Sending the biggest hug. I know the pain of miscarriages and also had a mixed experience from hospital staff x

@RainbowscomingI didn’t want to read and run. I’m so sorry that you’ve had that experience. Your expectations are reasonable and the system should better support you. Is there another part of the hospital that you can call regarding the symptoms you’re experiencing, e.g. the gynae team or (if appropriate) an early pregnancy unit? It’s important that you’re seen but I also completely understand why you aren’t keen to return to A&E.

I’m so sorry op. 💐 For your loss and for the inadequate care you have been receiving.

There should be a specialist unit attached to the gynaecology ward that you can access at any point where women can go to for emergency maternity care,

It’s not appropriate for pregnant women having to wait nine hours in A & E.

Totally get this. I'm so sorry for your loss. Could the early pregnancy unit help? Did you have an assigned midwife before your loss who you could call?

I had a miscarriage a few years ago and couldn't get in to see any healthcare at all. GP office told me to call 111 who told me to stay at home unless I was bleeding severely. It was a horrible, lonely experience with zero follow up care

This sounds dreadful. I think this is why most areas now have separate maternity triage and EPUs that you can access directly to prevent this. I am sorry it isn’t available in your area. They were invaluable to me and so different to every other area of the NHS I have experienced

@Rainbowscoming please call 111, they will be able to give you an appointment and you won't have to wait in a&e. I’m so sorry you are having a miscarriage.

I had 3 and our early pregnancy unit was up on the maternity ward. There was you, knowing you were losing yours, on a ward with new .mums and hearing newborns cry.

Do you have anyone with you for support?
I hope you can get an appointment before the pain relief wears off 😌 🫂

Having suffered several miscarriages myself i sympathise but I am unsure of how a and e would have done any different? Unfortunately its pain relief and then referral to early pregnancy assessment unit?, unless you arent bleeding and they suspect an rupture etc. Its not right but Unfortunately everyone still has to go through triage and a miscarriage in majority of cases isnt life threatening. They simply dont have the time or capacity for the empathy that may be required. They are in majority lf cases dealing with extremely unwell people. I have had several miscarriages including two missed discovered on 13 week scan and two operations. I had those and recovery was on a labour ward so I am not immune to the insensitivity shown within some nhs trusts

I am so sorry for your situation. Our local hospital, a big "general " one in a big town, doesn't have midwives etc anymore. No idea why. The whole thing is a mess! It's unfortunately worse in winter. My dh unfortunately had to go in with central chest pain,on a Friday,there wasn't even a chair! Full of drunks,handcuffed to police. 9 hours. Similar with me,although we were triaged pretty quickly and offered analgesia. I hope it works out.

I’m so sorry for your loss and for the poor care you received. Miscarriage care is so awful. Essentially women are expected to go through it alone, without pain relief, care or any interest from healthcare professionals. I had four miscarriages and looking back, was treated appallingly.

Separately, some advice on accessing healthcare services. I’d never advise just pitching up at A&E unless it’s verging on life threatening like an ectopic or severe blood loss. Hospitals are too busy. Call 111 to be triaged to the right care setting.
Or if your hospital has an early pregnancy unit, you can try to contact them (ours required GP reveal but some are self referral).

A&e is not equipped to scan or confirm a miscarriage, and because they are there to save lives, and treat emergencies- a miscarriage that’s underway simply doesn’t get priority. I’m not saying that is right but as there is very little that can be done, it’s just not worth going.

I'm sorry you're going through this. However, practically, you did receive pain relief (morphine x 2 plus paracetamol) in the time you were there, and as they have to triage you do need to wait if people have more life threatening issues. If you were happy to go home and sleep after pain relief it doesn't sound like you were concerned about excessive bleeding, so I'm not sure what else you were expecting. I hope things are easier for you soon x

I'm really sorry. I had appalling treatment during my first miscarriage but I was seen by a gynecologist on A&E.
I found the midwives completely dismissive. They told me to put a pad on and go to A&E if I was worried. I was taken in via ambulance a week later when I was dizzy with blood loss.
Can you phone epu this morning to arrange a scan and some pain relief?
You probably already know this but now you have had three losses you can be referred to the recurrent miscarriage clinic for investigations and support in future pregnancies. 💐

I am sorry for you but unfortunately this is the current state of rhe NHS and prioritisation and triage does
need to happen.
What would you like to wait to prioritise you (and womens health care?).. the man having a heart attack, the acute asthma attack, the heart failure, the fractured hip, the sepsis? All of these and more are life threatening and happening to men and women...

My heart goes out to you and I'm sorry for your loss.

I would say it's tricky because emergency departments are just slammed, local one is 10 hours wait. I wouldn't expect a staff member to be tasked with giving updates ahead of seeing the doctor- normally there is no update to give beyond it will happen when there is availability. Everyone should be treated with compassion. The fact that they gave you morphine twice actually meant they clearly believed the level of pain for you and went and found a doctor willing to prescribe.
Ask GP or midwife team about accessing epau in the morning.

I had miscarriages. One was horrendous, so much bleeding i ended up in an ambulance blue lit to a&e. Once there they & i was triaged, because it was a miscarriage they just left me bleeding all over the place for ages. They didnt even offer me pads etc so the blood was all over the bed. i begged them to call gynae & when the gynae dr arrived she was furious at them the blood was everywhere and i'd just been left. She actually shouted at the a&e staff.

I had to have an injection to reduce the bleeding & an immediate d&c for retained products. I had quite bad anaemia from the blood loss.

Sorry you are going through this. I had 8 miscarriages back to back over 2 years. I kept codeine at home and struggled through them myself never attending A&E. I would later go to EPU to get checked where I sort of had to hustle to be seen alongside people attending for normal pregnancy appointments. It's good you had 2 previously positive experiences. I would talk to your GP about getting a codeine prescription for home, which may give you the confidence to rest at home iif it happens again n future - however hopefully that's your last MC. Hope you recover well.now. There's quite a lot of debate in hospitals about how they handled MC, they really do try to help. Rather than a formal complaint, you could give them some feedback on this recent experience.

So sorry for what you’re going through - the physical pain sounds awful and of course, the emotional pain must be hard to bear. So hard to cope with these things in a public waiting room, I’m sorry you weren’t given more compassionate treatment. Sending big hugs and hope you can get the attention you need this morning.

I’m so sorry your going through this but at the risk of sounding insensitive this is just the state of the nhs and I think you potentially got I hate to say lucky the first 2 times with your treatment. I thought I was misscarrying my 3rd, woke up bleeding heavily in the night with contraction like pain I rang the triage number that is labour ward out of hours, they booked me a scan at epau for 2 days time. I asked if going to a&e was an option and they told me that I could but I’d be likely facing a long wait as unless there’s complications like ectopic etc there’s nothing anyone can do for a miscarriage early on. It was genuinely the worst few days of my life waiting to be seen so I fully sympathise but yes I was also told a&e will not prioritise miscarriage.

Just sending you lots of love and support. With my first mc I was sent home with a leaflet. I had a scan 3 days later which confirmed no hb. I went home (alone apart from our 7 year old- partner was away with the navy). Had to be admitted the next day as I collapsed in the shower at home, bleeding and in agony. They put me in a side room and found that my cervix was shut so they tried to ‘manually extract’ what was backed up behind it. When this didn’t work after several hours of trying I had a d&c. Whilst being wheeled into theatre the nurse told them I was in for an abortion which broke my heart. I woke up covered in blood and thank God a wonderful male nurse changed me and was so kind I cried all over him!
With my second I managed it all at home as I couldn’t face going in and it was more straightforward.
There needs to be a dedicated team for miscarriages- everyone is different but there is no specialist care for women experiencing such a frightening and painful experience. I felt lost and totally alone.
I hope you are okay. So many of my friends have similar stories to tell. I went on to have a beautiful daughter a year later, I hope you have a positive outcome next time.

Does your hospital not have an early pregnancy unit? In our hospital if you're over 20 weeks you go to maternity. Under 20 weeks a and e who will check for life threatening conditions like sepsis but after that you call the early pregnancy unit when it opens at 8am.

The care I received at early pregnancy was heartless and cruel by the way, a and e wasn't actually any worse but this was 8-12 years ago. I've suffered 6 miscarriages before my son, 1 between my son and my daughter and 1 since. So I promise I understand the horrific pain both physical and emotional.

There's nothing they can practically do to stop you miscarrying. A and e is appropriate for pain relief or signs of ectopic, sepsis or haemorrhage from retained pregnancy. If you're bleeding through more than 1 pad an hour, if you're in severe pain, if you have 1 sided pain and shoulder tip pain, if you've got a fever go immediately to seek medical care either a and e or call 111. Otherwise attend GP in the morning for EPU referral.

It's not caring and it's not dignified and treatment of miscarriage is absolutely appalling and always has been. The same people who will claim to be pro life and that abortion is murder will be quick to say at least you can get pregnant, it's only early and you can always try again. 😡🤬

From a practical and pragmatic point of view they will now refer you to the multiple miscarriage team. Of those who I know (including me, my best friend and my younger sister) all have eventually gone on to have a healthy baby, more than 1. In the 3 cases I mention the treatment we were eventually offered was cleaned throughout pregnancy and progesterone suppositories from implantation.

In each if my successful pregnancies I tracked ovulation, started progesterone 7 days post ovulation and tested 14 days post ovulation, if positive you continue the progesterone to week 14. At week 5 I was scanned to ensure the pregnancy was in the uterus and given clexane injections which I started immediately and continued for the duration of my pregnancy. Look up professor quenby protocol. See if your local recurrent miscarriage unit will offer the protocol. First they will do genetic testing for any potential translocations or similar causing it

I'm sorry you're going through this, women should be signposted to miscarriage services once they have a positive pregnancy test, it's a medical failing that women are not prepared when 24% of early pregnancy ends in miscarriage.

I appreciate what people are saying about the lack of resources but if they're unable to offer anything beyond pain relief they should have been honest about that and referred you out, not kept you in the waiting room for hours and hours and then insisted you stay when you decided to go home and rest.
I'm sorry for your loss and I'm sorry for the poor treatment you received.

I'm sorry for your experience. I've had multiple losses and don't recommend A&E.

For everyone who is saying they will only take it seriously when it's ectopic - I'm afraid in my experience they don't always understand the risks surrounding that either.

Having had 2 prior ectopic, one prior rupture, I presented to A&E in pain and bleeding in a new pregnancy around 6 weeks. It still took 3 hours for me to be triaged. Luckily, that time it was a straightforward miscarriage. If it had been another ectopic i would have ruptured being left in pain for three hours (from how my prior rupture had gone). I told them my history and could not believe it wasn't taken into account.

I was fortunate in that when I did rupture previously the pain started in the middle of the day. I was able to call EPU and get booked straight onto a ward and bypass A&E. The time I'm speaking of when I did attend A&E was becasue it was night time.

but if they're unable to offer anything beyond pain relief they should have been honest about that and referred you out
That's not how it works. People not liking to wait -understandably- is not a medical matter.

The moment you come to A&E and receive some form of treatment, the patient gas to be seen by a doctor. That's to ensure the patient is fit for discharge and decide what should happen next.

The problem is the doctor has to prioritise patients who actually need to be medically treated by a trained doctor, so those just waiting to be discharged have to wait.

This is exactly why people who don't need to be assessed and treated by a doctor shouldn't go to A&E. I appreciate that pain is horrible though, so you have to decide whether to manage the pain, or the wait if A&E happens to be under pressure on that day.

Miscarriage isn't an emergency most of the time. People will need to be seen ahead of you if they have more urgent problems. Its just a practical thing.

I think most ladies do just stay at home unless there's complications or they're quite far along. I stayed at home, don't even remember telling my gp. However with my first pregnancy I thought I was miscarrying, went to the hospital, waited 5hours to be told yes I was bleeding but they couldn't do anything else. Come back in 2 days for a scan. I didn't expect much else from them.

It saddens me to see how pregnancy care is so much worse now than in the 1990’s when I had two miscarriages. Each time it happened I called GP surgery and was advised to go home to bed. My lovely GP then came out, checked me over and booked an appointment for a scan the next morning. At the hospital I was seated away from the other patients and once I had the bad news I was booked for D&C as they called it then. GP referred me to specialist for advice about further pregnancies very promptly.
I’m older now and the state of A&E is a real worry to me.

I very much agree there needs to be dedicated care for women going through miscarriage.

It’s so depressing to read what op and others have been going through in 2026 when I’m
old enough to remember Mumsnet’s Better Miscarriage Care campaign in 2009 which focused on the provision of improved, dedicated miscarriage care through improving and expanding access to EPAUs and ensuring women are treated in safe, separated spaces away from routine maternity wards.

Without wishing to sound insensitive, and I say this as someone who has had two, miscarriage is a common occurrence which can range from relatively straight to life threatening and at the very least op should have been able to expect timely pain management, a scan, and basic professionalism and civility, if not sympathy. It is scandalous that this isn’t routinely on offer.

Judging from some of the replies here saying words to the effect of “what more do you expect?” some people have become far too accepting of sub-standard, callous care and it’s pretty obvious reading about various maternity unit scandals, that in a massively inadequate and under-resourced health system, women of child-bearing are drawing the short straw.

We should all be outraged and taking to the streets to protest, not accepting or defending plainly misogynistic budgetary decisions.