MMC - NICE guidelines on wait between scans?

[omama]

Went for a scan at 11+1 due to some light bleeding to find baby stopped growing at about 6 weeks & there is no heartbeat. I am 100% certain of my dates so I know it has died.

Was told we didn't quite meet the criteria so would have to come back for a second scan to confirm mmc & then we would be offered the options of natural, medical or surgical management. I was horrified at the wait, thought it'd just be a week but they were insistent it must be 2. Is this right? Can anyone link me to the current guidelines?

[donnab1983]

The same thing happened to me last October, went for my 12 week scan to find out it had stopped growing at just under 6 weeks, had to wait 2 weeks for another scan. But as soon as I got home that day I started bleeding, they wouldn't take me in as they said I wasn't bleeding enough, so I was bleeding everyday (ok not excessively heavily) for 2 weeks, went for scan and confirmed that it had died.

2 Weeks is a long time to wait, especially when you are bleeding!

Sorry to hear of other people going through the same xx

[petra27]

I'm sorry about your MC. Will be thinking of you on Tuesday, its a horrible thing to go through, but I did at least feel a bit better once it was all over. Hope you do too x

[omama]

Thanks so much for your replies. I miscarried naturally over the weekend then had to have a d&c on tues so thankfully I no longer have to wait.x

[squizita]

They have to wait either until there has been no growth over a 1-2 week period or the sac grows to 1.5cm+ and no yolk sac in the case of a blighted ovum.

This is because, although the majority of women know their dates, some think they do and they don't (either due to their own numeracy or some other confusion - also some pregnancies take a while to implant) or there's just a bad scan. In a very, very tiny proportion of cases it turns out OK.

The week is utter mental torture. However long-term, the impact on women in places (some states in the USA for example) where they're like "it doesn't look good - straight in for a D&C" is psychologically very bad as years after the women can be asking themselves what if...

It is a terrible, terrible wait. But on these boards I've seen women upset because their wait is too small and asking for a second scan/opinion. So the wait is there for a reason. But if you're 100% sure of your dates, it is dreadful.

[Janek]

It was a week for me at 12 week scan, which was rubbish as it didn't look like there was a mistake, but i couldn't risk drowning my sorrows because i was 'pregnant'. Sorry for your loss.