Any advice with a large subchorionic hematoma…. I’m panicking

[SLworld]

i’ve had a very long and difficult fertility history – 10+ miscarriages, 1 molar pregnancy and 2 ectopic pregnancies. I don’t have any living children.

I’m currently 7 weeks pregnant. On 21st January I had a very heavy bleed and was convinced I’d miscarried again. However, as tests were still positive, I had a scan yesterday.

The scan showed one healthy baby measuring on track with a good heartbeat 🤍 There was also a second fetal pole, which the sonographer feels was likely a second baby that has stopped developing.

They also found a large subchorionic haematoma, which they specifically described as large. I’ve been advised to rest, take it easy, and avoid exercise and sex. I’m booked in for another scan in two weeks to monitor things.

I’ve had no pain, bleeding or cramping since the bleed on 21st January, but I’m completely panicking given my history.

Has anyone else had a large subchorionic bleed and gone on to have a healthy pregnancy? Is there anything I can do to help things stick? And any advice to stop me completely spiralling would be very welcome.

I don't have direct experience of a large one, just medium, but wanted to bump your post, as I have read loads of stories on here of women with very large bleeds that had a healthy pregnancy, and I hope they can come here to give some reassurance. I can only imagine how scary it must be, especially compounded by your history. Did they tal to you about your risk level, or about where it was? It's not much help as mine was medium, but it remained stable, she was able to say that it looked 'well formed' which I think meant clotted, and my bleeds were very old or clotted blood (black at times) rather than bright red apart from one instance. After a few weeks it had disappeared (been reabsorbed). I suppose the purpose of trying to be restful is to allow this clotting to occur so it remains stable. It's wonderful you saw the heartbeat. Just focus on that and being gentle with your body for the next two weeks, and hopefully you'll see its stable/shrunk by your next scan.

I had about 10 miscarriages as well and 3 rounds of ivf. The final (successful) one they were treating me for anti phospholipid syndrome (I was on aspirin and heparin which probably made the bleeding worse). I had one huge bleed at 5 weeks, I lost over a pint of blood in about 5 minutes - we were on a ferry, the doctor was starting to panic a bit as it was just pouring out of me and he was the only doctor (I had no pain or any other symptoms). Went to the scan fully expecting to have lost pregnancy but he was still there.
I had 2 further big bleeds (no clots) (and continuous daily spotting (probably a bit more than spotting but not as much as a period)). I was prescribed extra progesterone to 20 weeks. The second bleed they admitted me to the gyne ward overnight, as again I was losing so much blood they didn’t want me to be home incase they needed to intervene, and my cervix had partially opened so I was told it the haemotoma had caused a miscarriage. DS clung on (we nicknamed him Tyson) and I had a planned section at 37 weeks. I was on bed rest for about 3 months from the day of the second big bleed to about 24 weeks when the haemotologist said the risk reduces (I stopped the spotting around then). DS was born happy and healthy and is now 2 years old.
My experience may not be the same as yours and my bleeding was extreme (the blood thinners won’t have helped), but I hope it gives you some comfort that it is possible to have a successful pregnancy whilst losing somewhere around 1 litre of blood on 3 separate occasions with a partially opened cervix. I think the on call gynaecologist who admitted me was surprised he was still there when I was scanned the next day - I was definitely prepped for bad news.

Also a heartbeat is a really good sign, we had no heartbeat at 5 weeks, went back at 6 to no heartbeat and had another scan at 7 weeks where it was there (but delayed where they expected him to be)!
I think he was the most scanned baby in history, we had 7 scans before we hit 12 weeks and then had them 4 weekly and then fortnightly once we hit 28 weeks.
Im not sure what you can do, it is an awful feeling the unknown, not knowing whether you will have a baby or not. In hindsight I spent a lot of time worrying and googling about something that was outside my control. All you can do is follow advice, not move too much and eat well. When you are on bed rest you have so little to distract yourself with, I got very bored staying in bed, I was fortunate enough that I could do some work and that was a distraction.

I had a large haematoma that was found after a bleed with also quite severe pain with my now 8 yr old. I was convinced I was having an ectopic as it was v early at 5 weeks, but all was fine. By my 12 week scan it was small.

he was IVF which I think is more common with IVF pregnancies. The only warning I will give you is that they increase the risk of a prem baby which mine was at 34 weeks.

Best of luck for the pregnancy x

heh, @Toddlergrumps thought I had the most scanned baby as 1st tri was fortnightly due to history, and 2nd tri 1xweek due to extremely short cervix, but nowhere near 4xweek! Glad to hear things settled after 24 weeks, that’s my current goal. I shall make a flip book from embryo to 24 weeks if all goes well (jk)

op, whether it’s relevant or not, I’m also ivf pregnancy like the other two posters and on aspirin. Hope you’re doing ok.