Sch group (Subchorionic Hematoma)

[HappyBunnyAB]

Thanks happybunny! How are you doing?

I'm doing good. Had two episodes of bleeding but it was all brown. I have my u/s tomorrow and I hope they let me return to work.

 

[curiouser5]

Hello ladies,
I suffered from an SCH with constant bleeding from week 11-16 of my pregnancy, & was initially told that I was probably losing my baby, it was stressfull to say the least. I decided early on though that no matter what anyone was saying I HAD TO believe my baby would be strong enough to get through this because I was this child's mother, and if I didn't believe in his strength then who would? While this child was still inside me it was my responsibility to be as strong as I could for both of us and have faith that my baby was a fighter. I found out at 36weeks that I had gestational diabetes that hadn't been detected at my initial glucose test, & as my first baby had shoulder dystocia (she was only 3.6kg) I would have to have a c-section this time.

On September 3,2012, my gorgeous (11lbs!) baby boy had finally arrived safe in my arms at 39weeks, and I knew at that moment I was the luckiest person in the world! Today he is a thriving, strong & happy 4 1/2 month old I know not everyone with SCH has a happy outcome, and I am so so sorry to all who have lost a baby due to SCH. I just wanted to share my story and maybe give some of you a little hope. I am FOREVER grateful to have my beautiful little boy

 

[HappyBunnyAB]

Curiouser thanks for sharing your story with us.

 

[bumski]

Thanks for sharing your story curiouser, it's lovely to hear positive stories when going through it x
I had a private scan 2 days ago and still no sign of the SCH! I also found out I'm having a little girl ))) I'm over the moon! It's made it all worth while, how is everyone else doing? X

 

[HappyBunnyAB]

Bumski congratulations! A baby girl! That's so exciting!

I'm still on bed rest but we found out the sex. We are having ! We are so excited!

 

[bumski]

Oh wow happy bunny that's amazing! You must be over the moon! Iv started to let myself look at baby things now, it's so exciting knowing
I hope it's not too long for you now on bedrest, I know how boring it gets. When will your next scan be now? X

 

[stardust1976]

I hope you don't mind me gatecrashing in here, but I am stressing out of my mind and this seems like the place to air it all out and get some support!
My story so far:

Two miscarriages last year back to back in March and June, the second one was tested and found to have Trisomy 14, my husband and I were tested and both were clear of being carriers. (Testing was because I have 4 children from my previous marriage with no issues, so they were concerned at 2 in a row).
This time was a bit of a surprise - we were not overly trying, but not preventing, so happy when we got the news that we were pregnant! Had severe back pain so went to the ER thinking I might possibly be, and worried it would be another ectopic. They did bloods, realised I WAS pg, then monitored with bloods and US for two weeks or so. All seemed great after that except for the really really bad MS. I couldn't function it was so bad and I'd never had it like that before. My doc put me on Maxolon which helped a little but still not great. Then on Christmas Eve, I had some very very very tiny brown spotting, and again on Christmas Day. My MS and all other symptoms had completely disappeared overnight as well. I waited a few days, but once the backache came, I went to the ER on the Thursday after Christmas, convinced it was another MMC. (I should add, we had an US on the 21st Dec that looked great, so I had no reason to worry so much!)
So they booked an US for the next day, and said they would call with the results. US next morning looked great to us, baby bouncing around, all looked great. ER doc rang that afternoon saying that there were issues they wanted to follow up and I might need to be referred to the Royal Womens for further testing. Upon pressing her, she told me that the 'issues' were the yolk sac being too large (6.9mm), and 'other things' and that the OB would discuss further on the Monday morning!!
Spent the weekend googling (bad!) found out enlarged yolk sac usually means inevitable MC, or chromosome problems (we have had both before so were devastated!)
Come Monday morning, OB is not overly concerned, says yes yolk sac is too big but might be fine just make sure I have first tri screening at 12 weeks.
11 weeks we are driving across Australia to move from one side to the other quite literally, so he says wear support stockings, take regular breaks, all will be fine. Make an appt over here in Perth for the day after we arrive.
Night before we leave - some minor spotting brown, bit more than last time, but not much and has resolved by the time we drive out.

After a few hours of driving, we are about to stop at border stop between Victoria and South Australia, I have a bit of backache but nothing bad. it's 40degrees Celcius outside (over 100F). We have 4 kids in car, two dogs in trailer and they all want out and lunch. I get up out of the drivers seat and at the same time as I realise I am wet through and realise it's blood all over me, my husband looks at the car seat and it's covered in blood. We kind of usher kids away with the dogs (eldest is 15 so it wasn't as bad as it could've been!), and as I go to move to walk to the toilets, I feel something come out of me. Something big. I'm holding it in between my legs, blood is literally running out of me. So much blood. We are convinced it is the baby because of everything that had happened up to this point. We are traumatised and concerned at the amount of blood, we 'deal with it' for over an hour, then decide we know what to look for in terms of blood loss from the previous MC's, we are literally in the middle of nowhere so we'll keep going until our night stop. Stopped to use the bathroom about an hour later and there was SO MUCH BLOOD. Then about another hour later when we got to our overnight destination, still so much blood. Within another hour though, bleeding stopped. So we cried and cried and cried thinking it was all over, and just got on with the rest of the cross country drive. It took us 4 days to get here. On the Wednesday we had our appointment, the 16th of Jan I think, and we get an US the same day to check that everything came out, and to our complete surprise there is our baby happily swimming around, AND they put my dates forward because it measures 13 weeks not 12.
We are in total shock. ABSOLUTE shock.
So they do the NT scan at the same time, we see our doc who orders the bloods the next day, see a specialist at the local hospital a week later who does another US because I am still bleeding, and there is the baby, bouncing (I swear he/she waved at me!). She says she can see a small bleed behind the placenta which is anterior. But it should be fine, discharges me from their clinic. My normal doc refers me to an OB, (appt not till about 21weeks), arranges my 19 week US, gives us our NT screening results - LOW RISK!!!, and puts me on 'light duties'. Slow walking is fine, but no lifting, pushing, pulling, straining etc....and tells me I might bleed for the whole pregnancy, but only to stress if there is pain involved. (there was never ANY pain at all!)

So now I am stressed beyond all belief, cannot believe we are almost 15 weeks, and cry a lot. Everytime there is a bit more blood I worry and wonder if I should go to ER, but it settles quickly, and it's always brown.

How do people get through this emotional rollercoaster?

Sorry for the extra long post, I just needed to get it all out to people who might understand the stress.

Thanks for listening (reading).

 

[stardust1976]

I forgot to add, in my ginormous post, that the 'thing' that came out of me was as big as my hand. The doc told me after it was a blood clot, but it was so massive we were convinced it was the baby and the placenta all at once. But in both US two weeks before it had not been seen at all, which seems really weird to me that something so large can go un-noticed.

 

[HappyBunnyAB]

Stardust big to you. You have been through so much. Your baby is so strong and I'm so glad everything is well. I know is not easy to say but you gotta be strong for your baby. I know there are a lot of people who bleed/spot through their whole pregnancy and they have perfectly good babies. I hope the bleeding goes away and you can enjoy your pregnancy.

 

[HappyBunnyAB]

Oh wow happy bunny that's amazing! You must be over the moon! Iv started to let myself look at baby things now, it's so exciting knowing
I hope it's not too long for you now on bedrest, I know how boring it gets. When will your next scan be now? X

We are extremely excited! My next scan is feb 7th. I hope the SCH is gone by then.

 

[JessyG]

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

 

[bumski]

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

 

[stardust1976]

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!

 

[shellyinstl]

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.

 

[stardust1976]

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!

 

[HappyBunnyAB]

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.

 

[shellyinstl]

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?

 

[stardust1976]

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.

 

[shellyinstl]

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

 

[stardust1976]

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.