Jeez what a scare that would be! I cant even imagine what you must have been feeling. I am back off work having only been back for 4 days due to some more brown spotting. Its not alof but i want to be careful and just rest until it goes away (hoping it does just go away). My next scan is my NT scan two weeks on wed which i am already scared about! Hope you are all doing ok and that is super exciting happybunny, one of each! X

Stardust that sounds absolutely awful! I had a few really big bleeds with clots but once it turned brown it began to settle so hopefully you are over the worst now and you have bled most of it out, 15 weeks is a great place to be at as your baby is getting bigger and stronger every day, try and get as much rest as you can, even bedrest if poss until the bleeding atleast stops, some people canspend months on bedrest I did a few weeks. It sounds like you have a strong baby in there, it is so so so scary to go through but things turn out good more often than not. Lots of luck to you, I hope it all calms down quickly for you x
Happybunny I bet you can't wait until your next scan! Hoping it's all cleared for you x
Jessy I don't blame you for taking time off again, it's just not worth putting yourself through the stress, I hope the next two weeks goes by quickly for you x

Thanks everyone,

I've had no bleeding for 24 hours now, which is the longest since January 11th. So fingers crossed that it is all done for me. It's so nice to hear how other people are doing with this. It's so easy to take getting pregnant, being pregnant and having a baby for granted, yet when you are on the other side and it's not easy to get pregnant or stay pregnant, everything kind of feels like a milestone!

Happybunny, I think we may be due at the same time? They keep changing my date, but it's sitting at July 24th now, although I've always gone early so I am thinking very late June.
Here's to a healthy and relatively stress free 5, 6 or 7 months for us all!

Hi Ladies, I was hoping to join your group and get some advice. I started bleeding on the 18th after coughing hard ( had a cough for about 2 weeks). It was a very heavy bleed (sorry tmi) had to throw away my shoes it was so heavy. After going to the e.r. and following up with my OB it was determined I had ruptured a blood vessel. No bleeding since except for old brown blood. this morning I woke up to more blood. Went back to the doctor and now he says I have a hematoma. I could see that something did not look right on the ultrasound. I am so scared. We did 3 rounds of ivf with no baby and then found out we are pregnant on our own. Oh and by the way I am 13 weeks today.

My doc had initially said a ruptured blood vessel as well. Something about the placenta burrowing too deep? It is very very scary, but my doc says that the odds of delivering a perfectly healthy baby are very good. So that's what I'm holding on to. The specialist I saw said that at least 80% of these go on to have no issues, my doctor keeps telling me that despite the bleeding he does not believe it will cause a miscarriage.

I think that because the baby managed to hang in there so to speak during such a large bleed that the odds are pretty good that any more bleeding isn't going to disrupt his or her position. I think the bigger risk factor comes from the placenta separating from the uterine wall later on?

In my case, my doctors bigger concern is being too low in iron from all the bleeding. I keep getting lightheaded and needing to lay down all the time because I don't have enough iron in my blood, so I'm on supplements twice a day.

I am hanging on very tightly to what I've been told to do - light activity only, no pushing, pulling, lifting, straining, stretching, or anything like that, and I definitely think hearing from other women in the same boat helps a lot. It's nice to talk to people who are going through the same thing.

We can all tell each other to hang in there together!

I think yours sounds similar to my story and you should just take it very easy and give yourself comfort that if your baby can hang on during all of that, he or she is a fighter and can hang on longer!

Shelly I'm sorry you are going through this. My babies are IVF babies and it was hard to get pregnant but now it's even harder having to deal with hematoma. I hope your bleeding stops and you can enjoy your pregnancy. The dr said the only way to get rid of it is bed rest. Stay positive and get plenty of rest.

Thank you both, I am trying to have faith in my dr. He said in his 20 years he has only seen 1 hematoma lead to miscarriage. Are you having cramping also? I was not really having any pain, but since the pelvic and u/s I am cramping. It was heartbreaking to go threw all the ivf and not have a baby, now to think about losing our miracle is almost more than I can bare. Stardust- My dr. did say something about the hematoma being caused by implantation, but it makes more since to me that it was caused from the ruptured vessel because, when I had ultrasound on the 18th there was no hematoma. If it was from implantation don't you think it would have shown up sooner?

The way my doc explained it to me was that as the placenta grows and burrows deeper into the uterine wall, it sometimes hits a blood vessel and that can cause bleeding. So the blood pools and forms clots between the placenta and the uterus wall, and then even though the cervix is closed the blood can escape via a very marginal opening. I wondered the same thing about how come it didn't show up on ultrasound sooner? But I have decided to stop trying to figure it out and just accept that it isn't causing issues with Lord Nibbler (as we've named it!), he or she seems to be doing very very well, and the doc is 100% certain the blood isn't coming from the placenta itself, but the uterus wall.

He also said that bleeding whether red or brown at this stage was less of a worry than severe cramping. But I know that cramping can be caused by dehydration, so whenever I feel the slightest twinge I make sure to drink more water.

I get the stress and fear factor too. We've had to try so hard for this baby, and while not IVF, I know what it's like to have multiple miscarriages in a row. It's heartbreaking to go through so much and not end up with a baby in the end.

But we all have to stay strong for our babies, like the wonderful other ladies have said. They have beaten the odds to still be here, the odds are now fantastic that they will stick strongly. As your doc said, he doesn't think it will cause you to miscarry, mine says the same.

Just stay hydrated, rested, and think positive thoughts. And at least when it's at its scariest, we can all talk to each other and gain some very much needed support.

This mayseem like a stupid question but, do you ladies think it is ok to take warm baths? I love my baths but am a little worried if it might hurt something

I think it's ok so long as you don't have any scented products or bubble bath or anything in it. My doc said that swimming was out completely because if you are still bleeding even a tiny bit, it means theoretically there will be a path for fluid to go back in there, and that could cause infection. He said baths that have nothing added to the water at all, SHOULD be fine, but showers are better. He also said don't make them too hot.