Cervical shock whilst miscarrying

[claire0605]

Hi, I've just had my 2nd miscarriage in a year. 1st miscarriage was a complete miscarriage at home and I passed all clots with fairly no problem,p and a short visit to hospital. However my 2nd miscarriage was a year to the date and almost same time as my 1st.
We went for an early scan as I had been spotting, scan showed baby had no heartbeat and we were devastated, we was given the options as per usual and I chose to take the tablet, I was advised to return in a few days to start it, however as fate would have it I started bleeding heavily at home, when I got to hosp the midwife carried out the first d&c which was horrific, I felt her detach what I thought was the baby from my uterus, and I was told that would be it, however I continued to pass very large clots, she tried another d&c and after that everything went very wrong, I felt sick, hearing loss and started uncontrollably shaking, I thought I was going to die, the midwife was shouting for help from the doctor and although I could barely hear and see I was still aware of very thing round about, they managed stabilise me with a drip and I was told that due to blood loss and clots being stuck in my cervix I had suffered cervical shock. I eventually had to have the doctor remove the rest of the pregnancy surgically, which was awful, exactly what I didn't want to happen.
I was sent home the next day, but rather than feeling the loss of our baby the trauma of going through cervical shock has surpassed that. It's been over a week now and today was the first day I managed to walk to shops with my mum and my beautiful 4yr old daughter (which we count our blessings for), but I had a funny turn and had to come home, I walked home thinking I was going to pass out. I'm so scared of cervical shock happening again, even though I know it won't because all clots have passed.
I just wanted to know if anyone else has had the same experience and to get it off my chest.
Also I am due back to work on Monday but not sure if I'll be ready physically or emotionally.

Hi Claire,

I am sorry to hear what you have been through. I didn't want to read and run so thought I would add my own experiences.

I have been through cervical shock during a procedure to take a biopsy of my cervix (not pregnancy related!). My blood pressure suddenly dropped and my vision blurred, I could hear what was going on around me but felt like I wasn't there. I couldn't speak and just felt an overwhelming sense of fear. It is such an awful and frightening experience and the feeling stayed with me mentally for a long time after. I thought about it all the time for weeks after. I was terrified of having another biopsy taken, but I did and I was absolutely fine.

My first MC was MMC and I opted for medical management. Because I had previously experienced cervical shock the doctor felt that it was best that I had the treatment in a hospital environment. Although the experience was traumatic- cervical shock did not happen again. Nor did it happen during my recent natural miscarriage. I have written more about my miscarriages at www.miscarriagediaries.com

I worried about cervical shock for a long time, but I can honestly say that it does get easier. It might not feel like it at the time, but I am sure that the way you are feeling is a normal reaction. Your body has been through an extremely traumatic time and just needs some time to recover both mentally and physically. Like others have said it may be helpful for you to see if you can have some counselling. I know that CBT has helped me enormously with other issues which I have been through.

Take care, Jen xx

I'm sorry to hear all the experiences above and late in joining I the conversation but I have just been told I am suffering from cervical shock. I didn't have a miscarriage but an IUD fitted. The procedure itself was as expected as I had been briefed before the procedure. When they finished , I just remember saying that I'd didn't feel good. The staff were excellent, had my blood pressure monitored, fluids administered etc. however, they just said it was a problem with my blood pressure being very low. I called my GP 2 days later as I was still feeling faint and weak. Blood tests carried out with nothing to report. One week on I have been told I am suffering from cervical shock and been told that it will pass. I can't do much, so taking life in the slow line. Cannot find much out about it online. However, this forum has provided me with a comfort knowing that others have gone through this and that is does pass.

Take care x

Hi Claire

I'd never heard the term cervical shock before, but I think that's what happened to me too. I had a miscarriage at 11.5 weeks in October. Bleeding and pain got out of control and I had to go to a&e late at night. By the time I got taken to gynae ward I was shaking uncontrollably too. I thought I was in some kind of shock and wanted to calm down and stop shaking before the doctor and nurse examined me, but they said the shaking was probably being caused by something trapped in my cervix. Sure enough when they looked there was a clot the size of the nurses fist trapped - including the sac I understand. They removed all of that and I felt better instantly. Husband was sent home and I was put in the ward. They checked on me a few minutes later and I was in a pool of blood and had started shaking again - went through another round if having clots pulled from my cervix. By now the room seemed to be full of people and they weighed what had come out of me!? Decided too much blood loss & took me to theatre for emergency erpc in the middle of the night. By this point I'd had multiple bags of iv fluid too.

The whole thing traumatised me and for nights every time I started to fall asleep I'd jump awake scared I was shaking uncontrollably and bleeding again.

At the time I didn't know how I'd cope with getting pregnant again as so scared of this happening again. But soon realised it'll never get to that stage again as having been through it once would be sure to get an erpc immediately at first sign of miscarriage. I'm now 17.5 weeks pregnant again and have really moved on from the miscarriage. However whenever I think back to the bleeding and shaking I feel really upset still. It really is a traumatising experience.

I hope you feel better soon and sorry for your loss.

P.s. I ended up being off work for over a month. So week from the blood loss and traumatised. Doc would have signed me off for longer but I wanted to get back. So take it easy on yourself - it takes time to recover