Clexane/aspirin birth and post birth experiences please!!

[MrsMcJnr]

Ladies I inject Clexane and take aspirin daily due to a blood clotting disorder. I am 32 weeks+ and am thinking about the birth and delivery and trying to get my head round it all can any one who has been in my position tell me anything related?

Did you continue with the aspirin until birth and then stop or did you stop earlier? I?ve been advised not to take my heparin if I think I am in labour? How did that work out for any of you? Was there anything different about your labour/delivery due to the heparin? How did your 3rd stage go? Did you have syntometerine? Were you able to wait until the cord had stopped pulsing?

Do you BF? Is it all fine?

Just really looking for any been there, done that on heparin stories thanks

MrsMcJnr... can't help you at all!! - But just wanted to say hello and good luck with the birth - I have lurked now and then to see how the conception thread graduates are doing but have not felt up to posting (I'm not as brave as Ready!)

(I do have a little news of my own.... I'm 7 and a half weeks! - hmmm not sure if you know me as chocdays - how about Sunshinedays/Snowydays??)

Good luck again - and hopefully someone will come along with the answers you really need
Love
Choc

Mrs Mc-I know I can't give you any advice as I've not yet got to labour, but I'm a bit paranoid about injecting as well in case I'm starting labour!
On Sunday I had contractions every 12 minutes, wouldn't inject in case then set my alarm for two hours later (1AM) reasoning that if I'd slept til then I wasn't in labour and could inject, if not I'd know I was in labour!!

MrsMc - I was sort of in your position. Was taking clexane through pg but not aspirin. Like you, was advised not to do the injection if I thought I was in labour.

They advised me to inject first thing in the morning. Apparently, most labours begin overnight, therefore you have more chance of being clexane-free for your labour.

For me, I did indeed go into labour at 4am, therefore was about 20hrs since my last injection, well over the 12hr limit.

I'm perhaps the wrong person to advise about 3rd stage labour though.

I was in labour for 13hrs, and ended up needing a section. This was due to placental abruption (unrelated to clexane use btw, due to low-lying placenta). I was able to have an epidural, as enough time had elapsed since my last heparin.

Post delivery, they doubled my clexane dose for about 10days, and was put back onto warfarin.

Breastfed successfully for 6months, until DD grew teeth

I don't have a recognised clotting disorder, but had a DVT and PE pre-preg. They took me off the warfarin at 6months post-natal, and I had another DVT. Am now on warfarin for life.

Am currently waiting for an appt with my consultant with a view to going onto heparin again so I can ttc (warfarin causes birth defects). So although the jabs caused me some discomfort (and worry at the time), I feel confident in doing the whole thing again!

Try not to worry about your labour. They will be well aware of your increased risk factors, and will treat you like a queen

HTH, and good luck

I believe they tell you stop the aspirin at 34 weeks (I delivered at 33 weeks) I was told not to do the clexane if I thought I was in labour, which I didn;t do the morning of the day I delivered. I did lose more blood that my previous deliveries, but not huge amounts. My labour was normal. I did have the syntometerine. And I am BF.

Can't believe you are 32 weeks

Thanks for the responses ladies

Chocolatedays I am over the moon for you hon, that is fabulous news are you going to come and join all of us TTC graduates on the Graduate thread? Please do we?d love to have you with us we?ve just had a couple of newly pregnant ladies join actually including Cityangel and it is lovely ? I am next to pop on that thread ? scary!! how are you feeling?

Jossie how exciting about the contractions!! It won?t be long now! My Consultant said yesterday that most ladies do go into labour at night (cover of darkness and all that) and so chances are I?d be aware of contractions by 8am when I usually inject. That said, given it?s a first baby, I can?t help thinking that even if I did inject in early labour, chances are the heparin would have ?worn off? sufficiently by the time the pushing stage arrives I guess there is no harm and possibly an element of re-assurance in going to the hospital really early on to check whether or not the contractions are starting labour off or not ? so long as they then let me go home until the last minute as I?d like! Can I ask? Have you met with a consultant anaesthetist? I have an appointment this coming week and I guess it is to discuss epidurals, worst case scenarios like sections, Gas v spinals etc.

Katsma thanks for sharing. Sorry to hear about the section though, was that under epidural or did I read that wrong? How scary the DVTs must have been. I hadn?t thought about the warfarin and TTC point hope it all goes well with the consultant and that you are back in the Clexane gang again soon

Sparklygothkat ? hey you have you had your baby since we last spoke? I think you have, congratulations! sorry to hear about your blood loss but glad all was well otherwise, you went quite early though didn?t you! (I?m not ready to have my baby next week!!) I asked my obstetric consultant about the aspirin yesterday too. She told me that in the past the haematologists and in particular the anaesthetists were keen to stop you taking aspirin beforehand but they have come round to her thinking in my hospital, the aspirin is for the placenta and the placenta still needs it for as long as it is sustaining the baby so you should take it until the placenta is no more.

yes MrsJ I had a little boy on the 25th sept, at 33+5 weeks, he was in SCBU for 10 days and then came home. He weighed 4lb 8oz, but since then has had some weight problems and only weighes 5lb 11oz now at 8 weeks old. He is beautiful... look on my profile for pics

He's gorgeous well done you!! I hope his problems improve. I had a growth scan yesterday in fact, Beanie is measuring about a week ahead and weighs about 4lb6 now

I am on anticoagulation therapy for life. I was oN aspirin throughout my pregnancy until my ds was born 15 weeks ago. Am now on clexane injections as am breastfeeding and want to continue for as long as possible. I will switch to warfarine in the next few weeks as there is a risk that longterm clexane use MAY lead to osteoporosis. I have been unable to find out how long 'longterm use' is in this context. While aspirine is ok during pregnancy, it passes through to your lo via breastmilk and is therefore not recommended while breastfeeding. Warfarine, on the other hand, is unsafe in pregnancy but considered safe while breastfeeding - something to do with the size or behaviour of the warfarine molecule that makes it too large to pass through into the breastmilk so your baby remains unaffected even if you, like me, need a fairly large dose (12 or 13 mg) to stay within the desired INR range. My experience is that many doctors/midwives are aware of this about warfarine and I was originally told I would have to stop breastfeeding after six weeks. I have had to find out most of this info myself. I found La Leche League and the Breastfeeding Support Network of great help. The BSN www.breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk/ have a pharmacist who answers medication in breastfeeding questions in her spare time.

That is really interesting Gingercurl, thank you for sharing and congratulations My consultant has written all over my notes that it is safe to BF on Clexane, seems that some people do think otherwise!

i was on clexane from my second trimester
i stopped injecting when i started labour

i had a fab birth and pushed DS out after a 10 hour active labour - 3rd stage fine and i have no idea about the cord thing as i was high as a kite (gas and air is brill)

problem came when they had trouble when they were stitching me as the bleeding was a little hard to control - anyway they got it sorted

i was on warfarin for 6 weeks post birth and i breastfed for those early weeks as well

me and DS were just fine

good luck with your PG