Has anyone ever had a stillbirth & went on to have another baby?

[incognito1991]

I unfortunately had a stillbirth in September, when we went for the meeting with the consultant after this they said if I was to become pregnant again they would take more precautions and possibly put me on medication etc. I am currently 5 weeks pregnant, I’ve referred to the midwives explaining my history and messaged the bereavement midwife who said she will contact the consultant to seek advice. I know I’ve only known I'm pregnant for a week but I’m wondering surely it’s better to start anything I need to sooner rather than later? I am very anxious at the moment I think because I have no idea what is going to happen in the following months, they did say I’d have more scans, checks etc but my experience with the hospital is more talk than action. Has anyone been through similar and wiling to share what they did to help you?

I'm so sorry for what you've been through

I don't know any of the medical details but my bosses DD had a stillborn baby and later went on to have two little boys

Hope this helps, best wishes

I’m sorry too OP. Yes, both my aunt and my mother had stillborns - my aunt went on to have another child afterwards and my mother went on to have me and three more daughters x

Not quite a stillbirth @incognito1991 but a baby who died at 27 weeks shortly afyer being born with a heart condition incompatible with life.

I was very closely monitored in the next pg. Reassurance scans in the EPU and once booked the consultant took me under his wing.

DD was born 51 weeks later, nearly two weeks late. All was very well.

Good luck, it's likely to be a stressful pregnancy bit a happy resolution will come.

It's very early days.

With luck

My DS2 was stillborn and my pregnancy with DD was very different to my fairly laid back approach to DS1.

My consultant told me I wouldn’t relax until I had my baby in my arms, and he was right.

My DSis was the same with her both her DDs who followed an initial stillbirth it’s hard going but will be worth it in the end.

You’ll probably have consultant led care and a slight increase in scams and appointments but feeling anxious is very normal.

Good luck! 🌈

Thank you so much everyone

My son was stillborn at 36 weeks. I already had a daughter who was 4 at the time. I went on to have another girl 18 months later. It was nerve racking but I was closely monitored and induced at 38 weeks. Wishing you so much love and luck xxx

An ex colleague of mine had a stillbirth. It was a little girl. Her baby was moving right up until the day she delivered. She went on to have 2 healthy baby boys. This was 20 years ago now. I'm sure monitoring of pregnant ladies might be better now.

Take all the help.

have you tried someone like sands? they offer support and obviously have a lot of experience with stillbirth and neonatal loss.

www.sands.org.uk/support-you/how-we-offer-support

I haven’t had a stillbirth so in no way can imagine how you must feel, but just to give you an example of what care might look like:

I have been at high risk of late loss/complications/very premature (currently in first successful so far pregnancy). Because I’ve had previous mcs (early, unrelated) epu gave me fortnightly reassurance scans, and once that stopped at 12 weeks I started getting weekly scans from 16 weeks for a known possible risk.
It means you’ll have a low risk threshold and much higher level of monitoring. The hospital will have pathways that they put you on for your own risks. I got told in detail the plan from the lead consultant once I was released from epu around 12 weeks.

its been a stressful and consuming time and I never feel ‘safe’ but they’ve definitely given me proactive and appropriate care following NICE guidelines which every hospital will follow. They’ve also given me a psychologist to speak to throughout which I’d recommend requesting.

Yes a long time ago now. My first child was stillborn (unexplained) and I went on to have two more wonderful children.

Do you know if they found a specific reason for your loss? (You mention medication). As ours was an unexplained loss there was no specific thing they could do second time round except monitor more closely, and early pregnancy was just a waiting game.

At your booking appointment, ask the midwife to go through anything that's in your notes about last time, make sure everything you know about your last pregnancy is in there, and get them to document your appointment schedule. If you might need drug treatment this time round, check when you need to see the consultant about this and how the appointment will be booked so you can make sure it happens on time.

It's a really tough time going through subsequent pregnancy after a loss. Lots of us have experienced this though xx