baby not growing but not miscarried and they won't do D & C

[bubblebath12]

I had a scan on the 8th of May and at that point they dated my pregnancy at 6 weeks although by by period dates I had previously been told I should be 9 weeks pregnant. Last week I had my 12 week scan and they dated my pregnancy at 5 weeks although I should now be about 13 weeks pregnant. At my recent scan they could only see a gestational sac and a very, very tiny ball of cells. My first scan was done at a different hospital, as I have since moved. They are telling me that they have no access to the record of my first scan. I know that the pregnancy has not progressed in the last four weeks as the recent scan has not shown any growth. Also I have been bleeding and cramping for the last 10 days but have not passed the pregnancy. The hospital told me that because they cannot access my previous records then they cannot prove that my pregnancy is not progressing and say that my dates may be out. I know that the baby is not growing and that I have been bleeding but they will not do a D & C as they say they might see something different on a further scan in 10 days time. I do not see how they can see something different when there has been no growth in a month. I am worried about having a ball of dead cells inside me that is not expelling itself and will not be treated further for another 2 weeks or so. Has anyone else had a similar experience? Am cross and confused that the 2 hospitals cannot share their records / scans and that I have been told by the midwives that they cannot take my word for it that the pregnancy stage reading has not changed between scans. Any advice at all?

Are you registered with a doctor at your new address? If so, I'd ring him/her and get the doctor to sort this out. You should be being offered an ERPC or medical management (it's your choice which one you want). The hospital you've attended is following standard practice by waiting for the results of a second scan, but the records of your first scan should be made available to the new hospital so things can proceed immediately.

Hospitals don't interconnect records. They are stand alone. I was informed by mw it's to stop scurrilous mw's forging records! I moved after first scan and second hospital wouldn't even view the copies I had. Ridiculous but sadly true.

I'm so sorry. Best suggestion is contact head mw whose based at hospital. Contact GP and scream loudly as this is an horrendous situation to leave someone in. Copy the patient support (argh! What's their name people please?!?) into all information as answers come fast when someone is watching so to speak.

OP that's a horrid situation. I had the same week-long limbo over Xmas after my 12 wk scan on Xmas eve showed what I knew to be a MMC.

I think the advice above (about involving PALs) is good - gets things moving in my experience. There's no good reason you should be left 10 days, it is cruel and if I were you I would highlight the mental distress you are under.

what a horrible situation for you to be in - all for a bit of common sense from the hospital and midwifes.

In your situation I would

1. Ring your GP an ask to speak to the emergency GP and explain the situation - they should be able to contact the gynae team and discuss your case with them.
2. Ring PALS and make a complaint.
3. Contact the scanning dept at the hospital where the first scan was carried out and ask to speak to a sonographer in charge once again explain the situation and ask if the actual scan can be downloaded and couriered to the other hospital.
4. Ring Pals of the first hospital to make a complaint if they are not agreeable
5. Speak to the head of midwifery at the second hospital and demand that common sense prevails over hospital protocol.

Having worked in the NHS for the last 8 years I often find that people who shout the loudest get things done so just keep hassling everyone and use your GP as an extra aid to hassle everyone and to fight your corner.

I'd skip to point 3 on rowtunda's list & see if it could be sorted directly that way first - rather than spending time trying to get the GP to be a middleman or complaining before you've tried to provide the information that they clinically need.

The advice above is great so I can't really add to that. Other than to say I've been in very similar situation so I really feel for you.

Last year had cramps and bleeding so EPADS unit scanned me and saw that growth was less than it should've been for how many wks I was. Told might be wrong dates, might be miscarriage so sit tight and come back for another scan in 10 days....2 days later I spent the night passing the pregnancy at home, phoned the next day and they STILL wouldn't bring the scan any earlier so had to wait another week to go in and confirm I'd lost the baby. When I did, turned out part of the pregnancy hadn't passed so had to have surgery few days later but what should've been 24hrs in hosp for it, turned out to be three days as they kept getting emergency cases in so the d&c was put back

........guess I'm trying to say that I feel your frustration at the mo. Knowing that you have miscarried is awful enough but not fully having it confirmed/resolved for ages is horrendous. Wish I'd been more forceful in hindsight so follow the advice above and push them as much as you can.

So sorry for your loss, really am. Thinking of you hun xxx

So sorry you are going through this. It is hard mentally when your body reabsorbs rather than expels the baby.

I found when it happened to me, it was worse than any of the other miscarriages.

I know it is of no consolation right now but actually avoiding an ERPC is a good thing if you intend to try to conceive in the future. ERPC's cause scarring and can lead to further miscarriages at a later stage. As I say that does not help you right now, but it might be of some comfort later.

As for what is happening to you rift now, the baby is slowly being reabsorbs into your body (happens commonly in vanishing twin pregnancies). With the size it is now of a small pregnancy sac, you would not know if you pass it or not, as it would be too small to detect visibly.

So with you bleeding (I had no on-going bleeding with my reabsorbs one), you will not know if you pass it or not. This may or may not be of comfort, depends on how you view it.

My hcg levels slowly declined, after scans confirmed the sac was shrinking they left me to "miscarry" at home. As I said I did not bleed, my hpt's gradually got fainter. And after four weeks I got a negative test and I had a very light painless period the following day.

It was hard to not have pain and bleeding while mis carrying on an emotional level. It was so different from my other miscarriages. But it in an odd way now feels different in a good way, she (gender not known but I decided) has stayed with me as a comfort. My big ERPC one flew to France for genetic testing, now that just felt weird!

I know that nothing I can say came really comfort you right now, but I hope that knowing someone else has been there before, might help a little. Let us know how things go, if you need to express your pain here or on the miscarriage threads are a good place to vent. I will be thinking of you.

Sorry about all the spelling errors, silly auto correcting on the phone.

Willitbe I am sorry to hear of your MCs. I do think it's rather alarmist to state that 'ERPCs cause scarring and further miscarriages' as in the great majority of cases (including mine) they don't cause damage and you can go on to have perfectly normal pregnancies. I researched it pretty thoroughly before I had one and the worry about ERPCs comes in part from scare-mongering about abortions. Nowadays it is a very safe procedure.

Sorry I did not intend to be alarmist. ERPC's do cause scarring, but usually minimal, and only sometimes that scarring will later cause issues as in ashermans. It is strongly recommended that a woman has no more than three ERPC's if ttc. Fortunately recurrent miscarriage and and repeated need for such a procedure is very unusual. Ian truest sorry if I mislead anyone and worried them.

Again sorry about the annoying auto corrections.

The last sentence should say I am truly sorry if I mislead or worried anyone.

Look on the hospital website for contact details for the supervisors of midwives (or just ring the switchboard and ask to be out through to the supervisor of midwives. Explain the situation (or get dh to). Ask them to help.

Supervisors of midwives have a particular role in supporting women to access midwifery services. They should have a good level of training in listening skills too.

I am so sorry you're going through this.

Thank you to everyone for their support, comfort and advice.

Bubblebath - just to second Quodlibet my ERPC did not give me any further complications. I was pregnant again 3 months later and I'm sure you'll be the same. Thinking of you and wishing you the best of luck x

Thank you to everyone. I passed the sac this morning thank goodness and am feeling so relieved.

I'm sorry you are going through this, as you can already see, lots of us ave had similar experiences. I had a MMC in 2005, I already had DS and after a lunch on Christmas Eve where the wine was not going down well, I got a BFP.

After some bleeding, I had an early scan that did not detect a heartbeat, but like you I was told my dates might be wrong! I was scanned again a week later, told all ok but my dates wrong by a month (this did not fit with Christmas Eve at all). I was found to ave miscarried at my 13 week scan. I chose to have an ERPC.

With DD1 and DD2 I suffered with placenta praevia. One consultant I saw was doing a study to determine if manual removal of placenta ( which I had with DS) can lead to PP due to scarring preventing the egg from implanting where the scar is. I was not warned that EPC could cause problems, but, in willits defence, if the manual removal of placenta could cause this, why not the ERPC?

I am pleased that you are feeling somewhat better. Hope you are getting plenty of TLC from those around you.

im sorry you are going through this. i had the same in dec. i went for scans every 10 days and initially from about week 7 week 9 baby grew about 3 days by the time i was 11 weeks baby was only 6 weeks but because 10 days before baby measured 3mm less they said it's enough for them to make me wait another 10 days just in case something changes even tho i was telling her that i know this is not going anywere and i'd be happy to go ahead with the termination as i was still very very sick and just wanted it to be over but she said what if we went ahead and a few years later i looked back and said what if baby would have grown but we went ahead with termination. so i waited another 10 days and there was no more changes except i think baby got smaller and then i could go ahead and opted for taking the tablets.... all was over very quickly and no too painfully so it will be over for you soon too. good luck x