Fetus stopped growing around 5.5 weeks...10 weeks in and no sign of naturally miscarrying

[bouncingblob]

And the hospital EPU are making me wait another week for a confirmatory ultrasound even though they admitted themselves they had never seen a successful outcome from this situation.

But I don't understand why my body refuses to miscarry. Nearly 5 weeks on from embryonic death and my body still wants to continue with the pregnancy. Has this happened to anyone else?

I’m so sorry you’re going through this.

I haven’t been in your exact situation, but have experienced losses and being in limbo while you wait for things to become clear can feel so hard.

Be gentle with yourself 💐

When I went for my 12 week scan, I was measuring below 6 weeks with no sign of miscarriage. I eventually miscarried naturally by 13 weeks.

Any fetus with no FH and a CRL (length) under 7mm ( approx less than 6 weeks) size has to be scanned twice with a time gap of at least a week in between to ensure that a patient just hasn’t just got their dates wrong.
If you are certain of your dates then yes it is unlikely that a fetal heartbeat will develop.
Sorry that you are going through this.

I have had 3 miscarriages and while the first one happened naturally, the second and third time were only picked up at scans (one at 12 weeks and one at 10 weeks).

Both times I waited to see if my body would miscarry naturally as that was my preference but both times I ended up having to have surgery. I was still experiencing lots of pregnancy symptoms and it definitely seemed like my body just hadn't got the message that the pregnancy had ended.

It's a very tough thing to go through and so please be kind to yourself. I expect the hospital will give you the option of either medical or surgical management of the miscarriage. Make sure you ask lots of questions and choose the option that you are happiest with. I went for the surgical route both times because I didn't want to try the medical route and then end up having surgery anyway. The surgery was extremely straight forward both times and I was well looked after by the lovely staff in hospital.

By the way, I went on to have two healthy babies after these miscarriages. It's hard to trust in your body when this happens but sometimes it's just one of those unexplained things.

So sorry that you're having to go through it. Sending you lots of love xx

This happened to me last week. 12 week scan and baby only measured 8 weeks. I kept thinking they had it wrong but another sonographer came in to check and I saw for myself how small baby was. I'm so sorry this is happening to you too x

This was my third scan but two were private. Unfortunately the hospital said they didn't accept private scans as evidence and so the whole process needed repeated within the NHS as well. Very frustrating.

I have also had a missed miscarriage. I'm so sorry you're going through this.

In my case I turned up for my 12 week scan and our baby's heart had stopped around 9 weeks.

The hospital made me wait a week to confirm development had stopped, then provided me with the option of either medical or surgical.

I didn't want surgical intervention initially, so tried medical. Unfortunately, this didn't work the first time, so I tried again. It didn't work the second time and in the end I ended up being told I had to have surgery as it can be detrimental to carry for too long.

The advice I would give is to give the medical a go once if you want to, but I wouldn't try twice.

Many people just opt for surgery straight away. And, honestly, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Before I knew it I was awake (feeling a bit drunk!) and having a nice cup of tea and toast. :) And I finally felt I could move on after 1.5 months of carrying post fetal death.

Be gentle with yourself and very best wishes.

PS. I have conceived again since and although it ended in a very very early miscarriage once more - with no intervention needed this time - I've absolutely no doubt my body is able to conceive and carry just fine. :) And I've seen so many other women say they've had lovely healthy babies since. Seems to be a strange anomaly and maybe one day we'll know how/why. I know I was desperate to know why, in case it could be prevented in future, so I understand. But we couldn't have done anything and it certainly isn't likely to keep happening. It's very rare. We'll get there. X

@cinders92 it's good to see you managed to conceive again but I'm sorry it ended in loss again for you, it's so heartbreaking.

What I'm struggling with now is why my body didn't recognise my baby died, no signs even 4+ weeks after it happened. I'm not sure I'll ever get the answer to that but it makes me so anxious for any future pregnancy.

Hey so sorry you are going through this. I had something very similar. I started spotting at ten weeks and the hospital refused to see me telling me that this can happen and to phone back if it got heavier (I have had a previous miscarriage and was already quite anxious). I managed to get a private scan the following day that confirmed that the baby was measuring 6 weeks and there was no heartbeat. Again I phoned the hospital and they still refused to see me and booked me an appointment the following week in case I had my dates wrong which obviously I knew I hadn’t. Before the second scan I did have a couple of episodes of intense cramping and passed a lot of tissue and phoned the hospital again and they did see me although they still wouldn’t scan me until the week had passed. Despite explaining everything I diagnosed with a threatened miscarriage which I knew wasn’t right. During this I still had morning sickness and all I wanted was for it to be over.

Sorry for what you are going through - very sad.

@bouncingblob I’m so sorry you’re going through this. It happened to me before Christmas with our first pregnancy - I should have been 11 weeks but the sonographer said the pregnancy looked around 6 weeks. I had two embryos in the same sac and they each measured less than 2mm.

Because the second embryo was found at the second scan, I then had to wait another week to monitor that one too. By then, they had been ‘stopped’ for longer than they’d been alive, and so I went straight to surgical management. It was as straightforward as we could have hoped, and my cycle seemed to start up straightaway. We waited a full cycle before starting TTC again, and I’m now going into our second cycle of actively TTC since the MMC.

As far as we know, it’s ‘just one of those things’, and we hope we’ll have a successful pregnancy next time. Please feel free to ask or DM anything at all about the surgery etc if I can help. I’m so sorry again that you’re going through this x

@jellyfish2 thank you, I appreciate that. Yes, it's awful isn't it. The not having answers really does mess with your mental health. But I think knowing that it's extremely unlikely to ever happen again is at least something. Hopefully one day we'll know.

Sorry for your loss.

Mine had stopped at 6+ weeks. Detected at a private scan at 9 weeks. Then epu scan days later at 9 weeks. Started naturally miscarrying at 11.5 weeks before the repeat scan ( I had covid so it was longer than the typical wait). They scanned me and said the rest would come away with a period. By (what should have been) 16 weeks I was still bleeding and testing positive so I opted for the surgical option for retained products.

I conceived three months later and I now have a ds who is 10 months old. A positive ending from it all.

Mine also stopped growing at 6 weeks, discovered at a scan at 12. Horrendous experience. So sorry for your loss