weak cervix

[embabe]

hi

i need some advice... I lost my first baby in december of last year at 21 weeks, which was devistating not only because I lost my little girl but had been under the impression I couldn't have children, I was told my chances were low due to PCOS, anyway although the care I recieved at the time was great my aftercare wasn't. I had a meeting with a MW after a few weeks and was told of a few reasons why it may have happened and a weak cervix was one of them. Now on the day it all started to go wrong i had been xmas shopping and when I got home I felt an intense pressure like I needed to go to the toilet, but this thing bulged out of my middle passage! It felt like a head and I freaked out... screamed for my BF but he being a typicle bloke didn't know what i was on about so I went straight to A&E. The doc there said she thought it was a cyst as it was soft and spongy but to go to the maternity hospital just to be safe! So off I went to the hospital on the other side of the city and was told to wait in a cubicle.. the pressure at this point was unbearable so i figured if I go to the toilet but cover the middle opening I could push whatever it was back in... all of a sudden the was an explosion of water.. turns out the "cyst" was my amniotic sac, anyway a week later my daughter was born but died during the birth.. I called her Aeryn, which my friend later told me meant peace, perfect! Even with her being so young I could see how much she looked like the both of us.

After the follow up meeting when the MW mentioned weak cervix being a possible cause I read a little about it and I'm 100% positive that was what happened. So here I am 8 months later and 10 weeks pregnant with my second miracle, and I seem to be hitting my head of a brick wall to try and get the MW to listen to me. When I told my GP what had happened previously he said he would refer me direct to the consultant but I've heard nothing from her... when the MW came to do blood tests a week ago I told her I'd heard nothing and she arranged an early scan at the hospital. I went to that and told the MW there about my worries and she said there was no mention of this in my notes!She said that after the rupture my cervix was closed, now to me this makes sense because there's no pressure now that my waters have gone, why the MW can't see this I don't know!

Now I know there's procedures that can be done to prevent this from happening but I seem to be being fobbed off with being told to wait and see! I can't lose another baby, I know whats wrong with me.. why won't the only people who can help me do just that!

em x

Sorry for the loss of your Dear Daughter.
Can you change mw?
Go back to your DR and tell them to get in touch with the consultant
Make sure your notes are up to date
Do you have a high risk pregnancy unit near you?
I've had 3 MC and I was never bothered about going and sitting in A and E if something didn't feel right. I was always treated really well at it.

Good luck with your pregnancy, sorry I wasn't much help!

I am so sorry for your loss. I lost a baby at 20 weeks in a simelar way; pressure, bulging membranes etc (no contractions). I have read that the cervix can close (mine began to) before the m/c but if it was weak enough to allow bulging mebranes-it could be weak cervix. They said presentation was very much like 'incompetent cervix' but as I had had normal term births in the past, and also showed I had an infection and lupus antibodies-both of which can cause miscarriage at that point.

Anyway, in this pregnancy, I asked for cervical scans and got them from 17 weeks. The 20 week one showed my cervix was opening so I had a stitch put in, I am now 25 weeks. Now I believe a weak cervix caused my loss but it took it happening again this pg for them to be sure. I would ask for (and insist on) cervical length scans every 1 or 2 weeks, from 18-23 weeks. I also rested from 17 weeks. I hope all goes smoothly xx

Hi girls sorry for taking so long to get back to you.

I had my 12 week scan today and spoke to the registrar ( was supposed to be my consultant but there you go)She is adimant that it was not a weak cervix that caused my previous loss, although she couldn't give me any other reason. She said that because my cervix was closed it couldn't be!

Now maybe it's just me but surely common sense alone would tell you the cervix may have closed again due to the pressure being gone! I have spent the last hour going over other peoples experiences online and I would say at least 95% of them mirror mine exactly! The bulging of the membrane.. the pressure etc!

I asked about the cervical scans and she said she would speak to the doctor whenever she saw her next! I have to go back in 4 weeks for the usual 16 week app!

I'm so angry that they are just brushing me off as if they don't even want to consider it as a possibility! I feel like they are sentencing my baby to death and there is nothing I can do about it! I can't go through another funeral, no coffin should be that small! My boyfriend is scared shitless and is falling deeper into depression! He won't talk to me, I hear his worries from his sister!

I'm so lost!

Please help me!

Im so sorry for your loss of your beautiful daughter and I hope and pray everything goes okay with this baby. I myself(and my baby) had dispicable treatment on my 1st birth but luckily it was ok in the end, I also suffered a miscarriage recently which was made a million times worse by the usual nhs treatment. I can relate to a lot of what u say although my experiences are a lot less painful as the miscarriage was early on. I really feel for you and am angry at them for you. Stand your ground...even if it means threatening them with legal action if anything happens...tell them that u are taking notes on what u have told them and requested etc. Good luck I hope they will listen to you keep trying even if it means turning up at a&e everytime and insisting on a cervical scan.

hi im back again.
ijust lost my second angel on thursday again at 20 weeks. was different tho, no pressure just bleeding. one doc said defo not a cervix prob then a few hours later a professor came and said it could be!
i pushed for the cervical scan and got one at 18 weeks that showed everything was ok... iwas due my second tomorrow...
i dont even know what sex my wee one is i have to wait for the autopsy results...
im so confused and angry and numb at the same. ihad just let myself believe that it would be ok this time, i even said to my bf on wednesday then woke up bleeding the next day!
i have to go for tests in the next few weeks. anyone know what to expect?

Hello Embabe,
I'm so sorry for your loss. I lost my first baby at 20 weeks in the Spring, and I can only imagine how you must be feeling at this second loss. My heart goes out to you. I feel that there is never 'no reason' - there must be a reason, we just don't know what it is. For now, I'm sure that you just need to look after yourself and grieve for the baby that you have lost.

Here is the address for best practise guidelines from the Royal College of Obstetricians www.rcog.org.uk/index.asp?PageID=720
late miscarriage should be treated the same as recurrent miscarriage, and you should have any tests that are relevant (Lesley Regan's book is good on this subject, on which tests she thinks are and are not useful), but I have found that you need to ask for them. Certainly the GPs in my area do not seem very experienced in this, and the consultant I was referred to originally was just a gynacologist and didn't seem to know much about it, so I asked to see a different consultant.

Sorry for the ramble, I hope this information is useful to you when you are ready to use it, but for now, much love and support to you in this terrible time.