who bled during labour (i.e. before the birth?)

[MGMidget]

Just thought I'd do a little bit of research to find out how common it is to lose some blood during first/second stage labour - i.e. before the baby is born. Did anyone lose any blood whilst in first/second stage labour and if so did this get treated as an emergency situation or just as normal? And if it was an emergency how much blood did they tell you you'd lost?

I did, and got all worried about it as I was on my own at the time (mw was off looking for the G&A). When the mw came back she was very ho-hum about it and apparently all was normal. It wasn't a huge amount though and I think really mainly the last of my waters leaking and bloodstained (boak).

With dc1 I had lots of blood/mucous during the 12 hours-ish of active labour. (Changing pad every hour or so, though it wasn't quite soaked) The midwives called it a "very bloody show".

Bloody charming

I noticed blood dripping just before I was fully dilated - I think the mw said it was with the hind waters? (the main waters didn't break until I was pushing) It wasn't any cause for concern

I had an ante-partum haemhorrage during the second stage. It got treated as an urgent situation, but not quite an emergency. They reckoned my total blood loss was 800-1000mls, but this included afterwards too.

My first labour started with heavy bleeding very suddenly-I'd had no other signs of labour (no contractions/show or anything whatsoever) before and was 39 weeks. We estimated it to be a lot more than 'a cupful' as the hospital asked and I was sent an ambulance straight away and whisked in as an emergency-all very scary. They confirmed that I was in labour on arrival but didn't seem as worried after examining me although I had to have a belt monitor (sorry-not sure of proper name!) for the whole labour. I bled throughout and needed pads for the whole process. I ended up with a ventouse/forceps delivery after 16hours of trying my best! The cause of the bleeding was never really explained to me.
My second is due any day now-PRAYING for a slightly calmer/more natural delivery!

my second labour was like a bloodbath!

It was all over the walls and the floor and dp was desperately trying to clean it up with a tissue (I know, don't ask, he was stressed!)

They told me later that they thought some abruption had occurred, but they didn't seem to be worried about it at the time...

I had a fair amount of bloody show during a looonnnnggggg latent phase - I think it was brown for a couple of days, turned red Saturday morning, and I finally went into active labour Sunday evening (DD born 7 hours later).

It was never very heavy and the MWs said it was fairly common for the cervix to bleed as it starts to dillate and efface.

I bled very heavily during the pushing stage about 1.5 litres.

I bled like a stuck pig with dd3, i went to the toilet to wee and change into a nightie as soon as we got there, and blood was pouring out. My mum looked very shocked but calmly passed me a pad and went in search of a midwife, who merely glanced and said oh it's ok perfectly normal. Later she said it was because dd3's umbilical cord was completely twisted like a telephone wire and was very short and it was tugging the placenta away with every contraction. Now 24 weeks pregnant and wishing i could do it all by proxy this time....

I had had a normal, mucusy show a couple of wks before I went into labour but when I was in the hospital during proper labour I took my trousers off and blood went all over the floor! I was really shocked and quite worried but the mw said it was a 'bloody show' and quite normal.

I started bleeding heavily after waters broke. Was still at home so rushed into hospital and was found to be 1cm dilated. As I continued bleeding I was then rushed into theatre and dd was born shortly thereafter. I had an abruption as well as tearing of foetal bloodvessels.

I bled constantly as I dilated. Midwife said it was normal (what Tangle said).

Hi Starlight

To answer your question on why I'm doing the research. I paid for private midwives and a private birth centre but when midwife arrived at home to assess me she decided a hospital transer by ambulance was necessary after I lost a bit of blood when in the throes of labour (6cm dilated apparently) She made out it was an emergency and 'not a bloody show' but haemorraging. She estimated 150ml before she called the ambulance although I think it was less than that as it didn't soak through a sanitary towel, was just periodic dripping during some contractions. Therefore, my expensive private birth turned into a chaotic NHS birth with me terrified I was losing the baby which wasn't nice! However, at the end of the birth my husband asked the NHS midwives about the bleeding and they told him it was 'normal'. Hmm! I was just trying to find out who was right - the private midwife or the NHS midwives! The private midwives made out I was lucky to avoid a C-section but the NHS staff and ambulance driver seemed a bit bemused by it.

have you had this discussion with your private midwife? blood loss can be hard to assess, especially if mixed with fluid, and i doubt they took the decision to transfer you lightly.... but i think you need to discuss it with them as it is obviously still upsetting you and distressing you

I lost an awful lot (need a blood transfusion with 2 packets of blood) apparently it was because I went from 0 to 2cm too quickly - carried on bleeding after that really.

I bled alot too. I was high on gas and air whilst the midwife was holding my pants above the bin assuming we would want to get rid of them as they were very bloody. Cue my husband and I having an indepth discussion regarding whether we should take them home and give them a good wash. MW did not look too impressed and we decided to bin them (they were a really nice pair of pants and had a matching bra hence my indecision).

With my firstborn, at 40+9, the first sign I had that I was in labour was that I started bleeding (about 6 pm). I rang the hospital and they asked whether it was fresh (bright red) or old (brown) blood. It was bright red. They said for me to go in straight away although I had no pains. I got there about 7 ish and was assessed straight away and was told that labour would start soon. I was given a sanitary pad to wear before labour started. By 9 pm I had my first pains and my DD was born at 11:35 pm. Towards the end my DD went into shock because the labour was fairly fast and furious when it actually started and they told me she had to be born fairly quickly.

With my other 2 labours, I had no bleeding and I still don't know why I bled during my first labour (and I probably can't find out know as it is nearly 16 years ago).

Hi Lulumama

I did have the discussion with the private midwife. She told me that the protocol for the company running the birth centre and the private midwives was that if you bled in labour you had to transfer to hospital. I guess that would mean many of their births ended up as hospital transfer then! Rather different to the impression they gave in the sales pitch!

She did seem a bit doubtful about her decision though when the NHS midwives told my husband the bleeding was normal. She said 'do you think I made you transfer too soon?'. I think she was the sort of person who panics a bit as I'd seen a couple of signs of that during her antenatal visits!

i see. did you know about that policy though when you booked them? i think it is a shame if there is a blanket policy , rather than looking at each individual woman.. spotting or a bit of a bloody show is very different to antepartum heamorrhage isn;t it?

No I didn't know about the policy. They talked about the 'unlikely' need for a hospital transfer usually being as a result of 'failure to progress' or need for an epidural. Neither of those applied to me as I had a 6 hour labour on gas and air and tens.

I got transferred from a birth centre to hospital as a result too- but it was definitely a haemhorrage as I saw it gush out during a push! MG, your situation sounds different to mine- I would agree with your suspicion that the mw might have been a bit quick in her reaction.

I was scheduled to have a home birth. Started pre-labour on thursday eve which stopped friday day and started again in the evening and went on until sunday morning. The midwife came to examine me and said my cervix was very thin - then quite a lot of blood came out and she said it could be placental abruption and i said that my placenta was at the top when she asked me. I think she was biased then by my age, as she then said 'i didn't realise you were 37!' . She treated it as an emergency even telling the ambulance to blue light it to the hospital (i also think she was relieved not to have a home birth on her hands as she was rining round trying to find someone to do it and had come off shift and didn't want to do it herself!).
When i got there they put me on a drip and broke my waters pretty much straight away - but i was with my doula and she overheard the doctors outside saying that the blood loss was not significant and they were not concerned. in fact it was only about 150ml. Later on i bled some more but in total was only 350 ml. But once they put me on a monitor every time i moved it stopped working and was really frustrating, and by this stage an active birth was out of the question and i would have been heroic by now not to go for an epidural. The epidural slowed down my dilation, the labour was 24 hours and i needed sytocinon augmentation at the end which led to baby being born with low heart rate, meconium and so on, and having to go to special care for two nights. he then went to intensive care for two nights because his sodium levels dropped and they said this was probably because my sodium levels had dropped during labour (i reckon this was because of having drip and drinking a lot of water, plus effects of the syntocinon etc). It does leave me wondering how different it might have been if they had treated the blood loss as normal effect of cervic dilation, rather than emergency, or if i had sceduled to go to birth centre rather than try for home birth. Ah well. Interesting to hear other people's experiences :-)

I planned a home birth but when I started bleeding (not much) I was told I had to go to hospital - I was having pretty full-on contractions and could hardly get dressed and walk to the car, and unsurprisingly by the time I arrived on ward (clinging to the walls!) I had high BP. I was all strapped up and unable to move whilst the midwife (I don't think she ever actually spoke to me) and the doctors discussed things just out of earshot. They discovered it was a breech presentation, bit late in the day to find out, and just as I was ready to push and I think I was pretty much fully dilated, I was told I needed a c-section due to meconium. It was all pretty awful and I felt completely out of control, and not sure why I had to through to fully dilated if a c-section was necessary, or why breech was undiagnosed. I have no confidence in the midwives/doctors that dealt with me, I think the midwife must have just qualified and was learning on the job. But I suppose at least me and little one were ok, just a shame the experience was so traumatic and the information and people-skills weren't there. Or empathy.