Irritable uterus/Braxton Hicks/preterm labour

[KittyFantastica]

Hi all,

Bit of background, I’ve had two early losses at 6 and 9 weeks, then lost our son at 19 weeks due to unexplained preterm labour. I’m under the preterm birth clinic, but they’re not very proactive, so I’m panicking every day that things are happening and I can’t do anything about it.

During my son’s pregnancy, I started to experience painless contractions/Braxton Hicks around 16 weeks. At 17 weeks, I started to experience terrible bladder cramping and intense contractions when going for a wee. I reported this to my midwife, triage and GP, they all said it must be a UTI (even though all the tests and swabs came back clear). I was never examined or scanned. At 19 weeks, I went into labour and our son was born the next day.

All tests came back normal, both mine and baby’s. No blood clotting issues, illnesses, etc. The plan now is to monitor my cervix every 2 weeks from 16 weeks this time. I’m pretty sure I’ve had two BH contractions this week, and I only turned 15 weeks pregnant yesterday. I reported it to my bereavement midwife as I’ve not yet been assigned a community midwife (we don’t get one until 16/17 weeks…) and she said to just drink water and try to relax because there’s nothing anyone can do.

So, I wanted to ask: has anyone had BH or bladder pain from early? If so, how did it go for you? If you did, how did you convince the hospital to see you/listen? My hospital don’t like anyone in triage before 24 weeks as they said they can’t do anything before that point, but that seems an incredibly archaic and barbaric attitude.

If you got this far, thank you for reading.

I have no real advice, but wanted to say I’m so sorry for your losses - how heartbreaking, and totally anxiety inducing this time. Especially if they aren’t listening to your concerns with real empathy!! I would push and push to be seen and scanned from 16 weeks. Get your GP involved if you need to. I wouldn’t let that go personally after what you’ve been through.
sending strength and luck with everything! 💫

Unfortunately she is right though, there is nothing they can do at that gestation so going to triage won't solve anything, unless you are actively miscarrying.
However, if you have UTI symptoms then you need to be tested, as an untreated UTI can cause uterine activity. Why haven't you got a community midwife yet? Who did you booking?

@ChickpeaPieIn our trust, you are simply not assigned a midwife until your 16/17 week appointment. You’re booked in by a random midwife at 8/9 weeks who you never see again. Despite suffering PTSD and severe anxiety, the one who booked me in this time didn’t even refer me to the perinatal mental health team because, “Well, you’re not suicidal or self harming, so what’s the use?” You don’t get to meet your community midwife, or have a phone number, until the day of your 16 week appointment. You just get a letter telling you want day to go.

It’s also not a UTI. As per the post, all tests came back clear. No UTIs or infections of any kind were found. I’ve been tested in my current pregnancy twice via my bereavement midwife this time, and still no UTI. My GP will not do anything, they pass all maternity care to hospital, and hospital, frustratingly, don’t want to know unless you actually have a UTI.

Having consulted a specialist in London, there is actually a multitude of things they can do from 15/16 weeks, and he was horrified to hear of the attitudes of my home consultant and hospital in general. The NHS postcode lottery where I am simply doesn’t prioritise prevention. Other Trusts (and countries) are able to provide all kinds of extra checks, and medication to prevent preterm labour, but all our hospital will do is cervical measurement from 16 weeks, which is useless if your cervix starts to open from 14/15 weeks, or if the issue isn’t cervical at all. They also don’t provide tocolytics, or drugs to try to stop labour, which they should where possible. All of this is what the top two preterm specialists in the country have told me, and unfortunately we live too far away to transfer our care anywhere else.

So I just wondered, for anyone who has actually dealt with this or similar, what their care looked like and what the outcome was. Because the more evidence I can present for prevention, and the more I can push for better care plans, the better my baby’s chances, if that makes sense.

Thanks @CustardCream31 Sadly, my GP is useless and won’t have anything to do with pregnancy care. They refer me to the hospital, who refer me to EPU, who tell me they are an emergency service only (quite right) and to call my GP. So it’s a never ending loop of crap.

I was auto-enrolled at the preterm birth clinic, so will be given the cervical measurement scans from 16 weeks, but the problem is it could be a different issue and no one is willing to consider that. My problems last time started at 16 weeks, and went down hill so fast I was in labour 3 weeks later. The woman on the triage phone literally said to me, “Pain in pregnancy is normal, we really wouldn’t worry about you having a bit of pain. You need to try to be less anxious and relax.” My baby died 3 weeks later, so it’s clear we have to take our care and productivity into our own hands, sadly. So yeah, we will absolutely push for everything we can, but it’s hard when they put up a brick wall. I’ve spoken to two top consultants who were horrified at my hospital’s care plan and attitude - my hospital even initially told me there’s no point in progesterone or a stitch because there’s no proof they work?!??, though they changed their minds once I got the specialist involved.

I have an appointment to see one of them in two weeks time, but it’s so, so far from where we live and we don’t have transport, so it’s not something we can do regularly. I wondered, in the meantime, if anyone else had experienced anything like it and what their care looked like so I can get an idea of what mine should look like and push for it as you say.

I’m so sorry you’ve been treated this way. You are absolutely right, there are multiple things that can be done - I know because I had a friend go through something similar and with treatment involving medication and rest she managed to carry the pregnancy to 36 weeks (this was not in the UK).
I had my first baby in the UK on the NHS and the experience combined with the postnatal care we received was horrific enough (for similar reasons as to what you describe) that my husband and I chose to actually move and have our second in another country (not as extreme as it maybe sounds for us because I am not originally from the uk anyway and DH had had the experience of living abroad before a couple of times). The prenatal care where I am, and in many other European countries, is provided by a single obstetrician throughout regardless of the level of risk of the pregnancy, and mine was actually horrified by the level of care and lack of knowledge displayed by the health professionals in the UK during my last pregnancy which made me realise the risk my son and I were exposed to was actually even greater than I initially thought.
Perhaps and of course depending on finances you could consider going private with an actual obgyn for part of your prenatal care (as in to treat this complication specifically)?
Wishing you the best