Atypical Blood Vessel Cut During Episiotomy – Has Anyone Experienced This Kind of Haemorrhage?

[trufflesandolives]

Hi everyone,

I’m hoping to connect with anyone who may have experienced something similar during childbirth.

During the birth of my first DC, I had an episiotomy — and the moment they made the cut, I started bleeding very heavily. The doctors later explained that they had unknowingly cut into an atypical blood vessel — one that wasn’t meant to be there and hadn’t been picked up in scans. It caused a significant haemorrhage before my DC was even born, which they told me is classed as an intrapartum haemorrhage (rather than postpartum), and it made the delivery quite traumatic.

I’ve been told I’ll be under obstetrician-led care next time, but I still feel really anxious as I start thinking about having another DC. I’m trying to understand what kind of care or options others were offered if they had unusual bleeding during birth — especially if it involved a vascular injury or complications from an episiotomy.

If you’ve had anything similar happen, I’d be so grateful to hear your story. Did your care plan change in future pregnancies? Were you given a choice about the birth plan? Did you feel supported?

Thanks so much in advance 💛

No personal experience but am an anaesthetist so see bleeding pretty frequently…. At least they know the vessel’s there now so if they/you are happy to try for another vaginal delivery then they can try and tweak things so a) hopefully it won’t happen again and b) plan for managing it quickly if it does.

Occasionally there’ll be a kind of similar thing happen during c-sections too - they’ll get down to uterus and find a surprise whacking great vessel where they need to cut. LW teams are pretty well drilled for dealing with unanticipated bleeding though.
There’s always choice in birth plans. It is worth remembering though that curveballs crop up fairly frequently - you really can’t plan for everything.
If you didn’t have a birth debrief after the last one it may be reassuring/helpful to have one if you’re planning number 2?

I had a vein in the wrong place during my first c section - lost half my blood volume. Luckily as it was a section they were able to pump blood into me as it was coming out so I remained conscious etc. Was absolutely brutal though!

I had another c section for my next birth, was just told that it could happen again but was unlikely. It didn’t happen again. I had the initial c section because of a horrendous forceps birth with my first - massive tear and far far worse recovery than with my haemorrhage/transfuion. Although transfusion did spark an autoimmune disease 🙃

Hopefully your hospital has a Birth Choices midwife with whom you can talk everything through. Good luck!