Bleeding in pregnancy. Tell me your positive stories!

[AmelieRose]

I'm 19+4 with my first baby. 20 week scan is on Thursday. Had some bleeding just before 17 weeks, everything checked out ok, then had to go back to hospital last week for more bleeding. Another internal, baby's heartbeat fine, no reason apparent for bleeding.

I know it's common to bleed in pregnancy but since being at the hospital have had bleeding every day. Not much, but enough to make me anxious. I asked the doctor when I should phone mat assessment and she said a little blood was ok depending on colour, cramps etc, but if it became heavy or accompanied by pain I should phone them. Midwife on other hand said I should phone with each new bleed.

I'm a bit confused with the conflicting advice given. I also had a mc last year and then it took me a year to become pregnant with this baby so I'm very anxious about everything.

Feeling a bit pathetic and hormonal ...

Earlier than you but I bled daily weeks 6-9. Terrified me but now in third trimester and fingers crossed all well.

I'd take midwife's advice to call for each new bleed - if nothing else the reassurance will help.

Best of luck.

I'm sorry you're going through this - it's rubbish, isn't it? I had bleeding for ten days at 5-6 weeks, then dribs and drabs in the first trimester. At 23 weeks I had quite a bit of brown, then lots of red blood. At the first sign, I called maternity triage and they advised coming in. I had to stay overnight and have a scan in the morning, which showed no obvious reason for the bleeding. I went home, still bleeding, but it stopped within a week. Exactly the same thing happened at 26 weeks - another overnight stay, no explanation. At 33 weeks, with no bleeding and almost no warning, my baby arrived. He's now 22 weeks old and seems fine. No one has been able to tell me why he came early. I guess it will only be relevant if I have another pregnancy.

Oh, and I would definitely get advice with each bleed.

It is rubbish all round! The doctor said it may be a sign of a low-lying placenta which will be revealed at my scan, but also said they may not establish a reason for it either. Was it the same for you Bankholidaybaby? I'm finding it hard to think about anything else tbh.

I had a few bleeds with DS who is now a happy and healthy 3 year old. Because I'm Rh negative though this meant quite a lot of extra trips to the midwife

I'm currently bleeding at 12w with DC2 so have taken the day off work (having seen the midwife yet again) and am watching the Horrible Histories box sets and trying to convince myself that everything will be fine. It's also meant that I've had to tell work before my scan as I had a very important meeting today.

Best of luck to you (and a virtual squeeze and hand hold)

So sorry you're going through this, Amelie. You are not being pathetic at all, it is worrying.

I bled most weeks throughout DD1 pregnancy through having cervical ectropia - something to do with having 'friable' cells on the cervix which are prone to bleeding. Although I tried to rationalise this, every time I pitched up at hospital I had that slightly sick feeling just in case I was, in fact, miscarrying. But DD1 is off to secondary school this year, so I am hopeful that your situation will end just as happily.

Please do get checked out as per midwife's advice, but try to remain positive too. Sending hugs.

Thanks folks. It's reassuring to hear positive experiences. PervyMuskrat I am also off work - been off since Thursday. Feeling quite guilty about it but the atmosphere at work is very stressful at the moment so it's probably for the best.

My placenta was anterior and not low, my cervix was long and closed. It may have been a pre-existing ectropion, they think, but they were never sure. When I had lots of red blood (I was in hospital the first time), I panicked and was quite hysterical. It was so upsetting and alarming.

I had bleeds with dd2 up to about. 9 weeks, and she's gurgling next to me. Sil had late bleeds that sound like yours, it was due to the placenta pulling away a bit from the womb. Her dd was absolutely fine.

Very scary though, I hope your scan can put your mind at ease.

Don't feel guilty about being off, concentrate on you for now.

Try not to feel guilty about work - I really enjoy my job and it's manic there right now but I refuse to feel guilty as it's much more important to be well and rested.

Distraction is working well for me. HH and jigsaws definitely a winning combination!

Don't worry about work - this is more important. My baby arrived a month before I was due to start maternity leave. If you'd asked me the day before if that would bother me, I would have said yes, but the day after it was a definite no. My colleagues have got on with it without me, and I'll never have this time with my baby again.

When I had my bleeds, when I had horrible morning sickness 6-17 weeks, and when I had gastroenteritis and ended up on a drip at 19 weeks, I just had to stop, slow down and put myself and my bump ahead of anything else. The first hospital stay, I had been changing lines on the tube on my way to see a client, I felt odd, knew there was blood in my knickers and found a loo. Called the hospital from the ticket hall and then took a different line to the hospital.

Absolutely, Amelie. Don't think about work, but get to distracting with box sets, or Chris's highly entertaining thread about her neighbour's horse and her field and a festival... not entirely up to date on it, but I think it will definitely do the job!

The other thing I would say is don't be afraid to get checked, if only to reassure yourself. There were times, in my MANY trips to see various midwives and doctors with the bleeding, that I felt like an idiot for wasting NHS resources - and not once did any health care professional suggest that I did anything other than the right thing in going to hospital.... so get as much professional reassurance as you need.

Ok, off to watch a bit more of The Bridge series 2 on ITunes. Can highly recommend for purposes of distraction!

I bled through my pg with ds - from about 8 weeks onwards, never went more than about 3/4 days. Sometimes brown, but lots of small red bleeds too. At 35 weeks, I was finally diagnosed with cervical erosion - harmless & common (safe to google!!) ds arrived a bit early at 36 weeks, but I'd had the steroid injection so he was hale & hearty. He's 10 next month, and as annoying as a 10 yo boy can be. I bled throughout dd's pg too - rather less, but esp towards the beginning. I was quite blasé about it by then . She is nearly 8 now, (equally annoying!) arrived 2 days after her due date. I had a fairly large bleed (again, erosion related) at the beginning of my labour, but otherwise the labour & pg were ridiculously easy. I am one of those weird people who can say they enjoyed their labour!

My lovely, lovely doc signed me off for a week when I was pg with ds - she said whilst it would prob make no difference to the outcome, her approach was to encourage women to do whatever they could to make their lives easy in pg, so that whatever happened, they could never look back & say ' I wish I hadn't gone to work/made that trip/carted that wardrobe up the stairs.' That helped me when I was feeling guilty about work.

Good advice about work everyone. I'm a teacher, so feel very guilty about leaving my classes. They're probably having the time of their lives without me mind you!

I'll keep an eye on it and phone the hospital if it keeps bothering me. Maybe I'm just going to bleed all the way through...

All these stories about early babies... I'm so controlling with my job that would be a nightmare! I think I need to learn to give up control. Not going to be easy

And what good advice from your doctor notbutreally. I need to keep that in mind too.

Don't you have to go on maternity leave early as a teacher? My LEA had some sort of rule (which I seem to remember was to do with Health and Safety) about leaving several weeks before my due date - and my DCs were late, btw, despite all the bleeding - but that was back in the dark ages...

Nope Britabroad, no early mat leave for teachers (I wish!). Am planning on working until the week before. Only 19 weeks til mat leave then. I'll be wishing my days away...

With my 2nd child, I bled up until about 26 weeks. I can feel your fear because I know what it's like. I had real, proper bleeding. And every time I went in to get checked out, there was no reason for it. I never understood why. My placenta was high. Anyway, she's nearly 4 years old now. :-) I am 23 weeks now and have a low lying placenta, a recipe for bleeding in pregnancy. I haven't had one episode apart from around 6 weeks. Knock on wood. So go figure. Your 20 week scan will be reassuring. Sorry if this is tmi, but if you are having penetrative sex,this might be your problem. We've been more careful this pregnancy (especially with a low lying placenta) and we have wondered if my bleeding episodes with DD were due to our intimacy. We've been more, how shall I say it, exploratory this time... less invasive if you get my drift. :-) I was really, really stressed out and knackered with my DD. Work was difficult and very demanding. Sometimes I felt this contributed to my bleeding as I had lots of heavy cramping late in pregnancy as well as the bleeding. I was very much under the gun at work. I am not working now, so much more rested. Try and take it as easy as possible. Let go of some of your responsibilities and let your OH take on some cooking, washing,etc. You can make it up to him after baby is born. Good luck! Be well.

Thanks deelite. Am going to try from now on to avoid stress as much as possible. We haven't DTD for a while because of the bleeding and before that I was very sick... Poor DH! Sound advice though, I'll bear it in mind

Hi AmelieRose, I bled on & off from the start of my pregnancy, had small spottings of blood to full on bright red gushes of it (sorry tmi), was sure we would get bad news as the day before my 20 week scan I had a particularly bad bleed but we got to see our little boy on the monitor, he was born at 37 weeks & is now 3 months old. I had a lot of early scans because of the bleeding and they never worked out what caused it. Wishing you all the best for Thursday.x

Hi I was hospitalised with post-coital bleed at 20 weeks. Got checked but cervix looked funny so the kept me overnight ... Consultant checked vetvix, 'twas fine! My DD is perfectly healthy and happy. Born 10 days over :) xx

Vetvix!? Argh... Sorry lol, cervix!

I had bleeding in early pregnancy. I had some spotting while on holiday at about 5 weeks, then bleeding and cramping at 9 weeks and where I had a scan and saw baby's heact beat. I think this may have been due to me having a cervical erosion prior to pregnancy which can get worse during pregnancy as your cervix softens more. I then had Brown blood at14 weeks which they think may have beenbeen because at the time I had a low lying placenta. Apparently little blood vessels in the placenta can bust and because its so low you can see the blood from it.

Thanks everyone - all your experiences are very reassuring. Counting down til Thursday now, fingers crossed the scan will reveal the cause.