Talk to me about Subchorionic Bleeds

[babygrey]

I'm 7wks pg with twins. I've been having spotting for weeks, then yesterday, woke up in a literal pool of blood. It was terrifying. I thought my babies were lost, for sure.

But, joyfully, they are both there with good heartbeats. However, baby A has a pretty significant subchorionic bleed. I was in the ER, so they didn't tell me an exact measurement, but it was bigger than the gestational sac.

I know the treatment is wait and watch (and pelvic rest...) and the there's an increased risk of m/c. I don't know much more than that and I'm afraid to open up google. I'm getting re-ultrasounded in 2 weeks as long as nothing changes... feels like forever.

Talk to me about your experiences with SCH?
Any mantras/thoughts/advice on how not to completely lose it at the sight of blood?

[kalamos23]

I have had a lot of experiences with them and they are scary shit when they are big and the babies are young. The bigger they are, the younger the baby, the worse the outcome. It's actually how I lost my last baby - the SCH was so large it compressed the gestational sac and basically suffocated the poor baby. I'm really not telling you this to scare you, but I think that doctors don't really grasp the seriousness of it sometimes.

From what I have read, drink LOTS of water, and rest rest rest - do NOT lift anything over 5 lbs if you can help it, and preferably bedrest until you stop bleeding. Also, ask your doctor about baby aspirin to prevent clotting. I lost my second baby loss to a retroplacental hematoma (an SCH, but under the placenta) at 8.5-9 weeks when it started clotting and basically scabbed over the source of nutrition for the baby. You don't want uterine contractions, so no sex, and keeping hydrated cuts down on your risk of contractions from being dehydrated. Contractions will disturb the SCH and could aggravate the bleed.

Bleeding coming out is actually good in a way, it means the pressure is being taken off of the sac, but you want brown blood and not new blood.

I hate to sound like such a downer, but after having lost 2 to hematomas, I really wish someone would have told me how serious they can be. Oh, grape juice is a good natural blood thinner, purple grape juice that is, it is supposed to help in SCH situations and also with blood clotting disorders. I would also press for an ultrasound next week, if it is that big, they need to monitor it more closely than every 2 weeks. Once it starts resolving, then you should be at every 2 weeks.

(((hugs)) PM me if you need some medical journals to give to your doc, I have a lot saved after the last 2 times (my OB totally missed the retroplacental hematoma I had at 7w with the middle loss and it was NOT small, so I've learned I have to really research a lot on my own).

[babygrey]

Rachel. Thank you. My heart hurts for you that you've had to be in the position to know so much about this, but thank you for sharing the info with me. Of course, it is really painful to read, but I'm glad to have it.

I'm already taking baby asprin, and, obviously pelvic rest. Will def start super-hydrating and I didn't know that about grape juice.
I'm in the SAHM with a toddler bind about bedrest/lifting- do you have articles on whether bedrest is beneficial? I'll pm you. My OB said not beneficial, but I know bedrest in gen is so controversial that I'm not putting much weight into that opinion.

OB originally was going to ultrasound me in one week, but talked to perinatology and decided the risk of cramping from the vaginal ultrasound was not worth the benefit of knowing w/o being able to intervene. I don't know how to feel about it, TBH, and I'm sure my OB would ultrasound me in a week if I wanted. I will certainly ponder this.

I have a random question for you- with the bleeding and all yesterday and today, I've had severe pelvic pain. It isn't really cramping, but actual pain. Did you have pain with your SCHs? I also have endo/adhesions, so that is the likely culprit for the pain, but the onset is directly related to when I started bleeding.

sigh.

ETA: damn. I'm nursing. OB, again, gave me the go-ahead, but she's not my OB (in the middle of picking a new one bc the CNM I was seeing doesn't do twins) and I don't know her well enough to know whether to trust her judgment. I know you were nursing for at least part of your journey- what do you think about nursing potentially causing cramping? Did you keep nursing? FWIW, I don't have noticeable cramping when I nurse. ugh. I just want to cry.

[kalamos23]

Yeah, I was/am still nursing as well. Honestly, there is just no way I could wean that fast, and by the time we found out about the second SCH, the news was pretty grim, sac was measuring a week behind already due to the compression. I was taking 100mg of B6 a day and I was hoping and praying that it would help reduce the effects of nursing/ctx. If you don't have any noticeable cramping while nursing, that is good. What I tried to do was distract, distract, distract in order to space nursings as far apart as possible in order to minimize it if possible.

I was in a bind too with the toddler and picking up because it's just me watching DD. Is there any way your oldest could help out? Here's a link to a good study showing that bedrest at least until the bleeding stops is proven to give better outcomes and fewer miscarriages:
http://www.ima.org.il/imaj/ar03ju-9.pdf

I did modified bedrest, meaning, I just tried to keep off my feet as much as possible and tried to NOT pick DD up, I would sit down and let her crawl into my lap. She weighs close to 40 lbs, so that was mainly why.

As far as the ultrasound goes, if you are 7 weeks, unless you have a retroverted uterus, you should be fine to have an abdominal u/s. I know I had one at 7w2d with my middle pregnancy loss and we saw the baby and got measurements just fine. My OB group has a pretty good machine though, so either way it is your call. I do agree, I wouldn't do a t/v.

I'm not sure about the pelvic pain, I'm wondering if it is more because of the endo and your uterus getting bigger and pulling more upright - it may be breaking adhesions and that might be the pain and it might just be coincidence that it started when the bleeding did? I would imagine a twin uterus is much bigger than a singleton uterus and with the SCH it would be even bigger so this sounds like a plausible theory, but definitely ask your OB. I didn't have pelvic pain with any of my SCH/RPHs but I did have a lot of cramping like AF.

(((hugs)) I am so sorry you are going through this and I am praying hardcore that your little fighter babies pull through.

[MaryLang]

kalomos23 seems to have covered everything.
I had 1 experience with SCH bleeding, with #3.
I pretty much did a modified bedrest as pp is describing as I had two babies/toddlers at home.
A lot of sitting around and letting them come to me. I did end up weaning my son during this time. It took a couple of weeks. My experience with the bleed was lots of blood loss, much more than a period, lots of cramping where I was at one point on the bathroom floor in a fetal position ready to call an ambulance because I was in so much pain.
This was off and on for the 1st trimester.
I was getting regular u/s's during those weeks and every time I'd go in I'd expect the worse (how could a baby live through that?!?) and every time I would see a little one in there jumping around. Absolutely amazing.
She is now a happy 4 year old. But those early days were filled with lots of sitting around and worry and stress.

[caseykn]

Originally Posted by MaryLang

kalomos23 seems to have covered everything.
I had 1 experience with SCH bleeding, with #3.
I pretty much did a modified bedrest as pp is describing as I had two babies/toddlers at home.
A lot of sitting around and letting them come to me. I did end up weaning my son during this time. It took a couple of weeks. My experience with the bleed was lots of blood loss, much more than a period, lots of cramping where I was at one point on the bathroom floor in a fetal position ready to call an ambulance because I was in so much pain.
This was off and on for the 1st trimester.
I was getting regular u/s's during those weeks and every time I'd go in I'd expect the worse (how could a baby live through that?!?) and every time I would see a little one in there jumping around. Absolutely amazing.
She is now a happy 4 year old. But those early days were filled with lots of sitting around and worry and stress.

I'm so sorry you're going through this! At about 11 weeks I stood up after having been sitting down on the couch for a while and was immediately soaked in a huge pool of blood. It was really frightening and, like you, I was sure I'd lost the baby. I went to the bathroom and passed some pretty big clots and that scared me more but then I had an ultrasound and all was fine. I was told my hematoma wasn't terribly large but I was never told dimensions. I did modified bed rest for a while and continued to have some bleeding/spotting off and on for several weeks. I tried to rest as much as possible, sat with my feet up, drank a ton of water, didn't life anything or weed the garden or carry laundry up and down the stairs. I stopped spotting at about 14 weeks and at my 18 week ultrasound it appeared to be completely healed/gone. I'm 28 weeks along now and everything has been really smooth since then. My midwife suggested accupuncture when I had my first bleed and I went weekly for several weeks. The accupuncturinst also gave me an herbal concoction to take that I took for about a month. It's hard to know if it really helped but it certainly didn't hurt and made me feel like I was doing something.

I too tried to avoid googling it but of course I did. I know there are those out there who have had negative outcomes from these bleeds and they certainly can be serious but from what my midwife told me, and from what I've read, it seems that most of the time they heal themselves. Since mine happened, I've come to know that several moms in my circle of friends have had serious bleeding early on like this and their pregnancies went fine. It's hard not to panic when you see blood but if you continue to have some spotting or bleeding for a while, know that your body is purging itself of that built up blood. I hope all goes well!

[donutmolly]

I experienced a SCH with DD2 -- and I was put on bedrest for a week (I had to hire someone to come and take care of DD1 who was 2 at the time). I don't know whether it helped or not, but DD2 is a happy and healthy toddler. Oh, and I was nursing at the time too -- DD1 would have freaked if I had weaned her at that point which would not have reduced my stress. I'm sorry you're going through this -- it's so scary to see blood when you're pg.

[babygrey]

Originally Posted by kalamos23

As far as the ultrasound goes, if you are 7 weeks, unless you have a retroverted uterus, you should be fine to have an abdominal u/s.
.

I DO have a very retroverted uterus. W/ DD, I had to have t/v to see anythinguntil ~8-9weeks. I'm going to call OB Monday and hopefully discuss US timing more in depth...

I'm putting myself on the closest-to-bedrest I can, drinking grape juice, taking LDA and hoping for the best.

I just can't wean. donutmolly- like you said, DD would freak and that won't help my stress at all.

Thank you again. And everyone else.

[Amila]

Not sure if this helps, but I had a SCB at 7 weeks, though I didn't actually bleed- it was just picked up via a dating US. But it totally reabsorbed and went away by 20 weeks, with no issue

[greenmulberry]

Wow, they think this is what happened to me recently at 16 weeks (one week ago). I got up early in the morning, and passed some globs of blood along with a flow that was a like a heavy period. I was so sure I was was miscarrying I wasn't even panicked, I thought there was nothing to be done, but went to the ER and the blood stopped and baby looked OK.

It has been a week, we still have a heartbeat, I am just so emotionally exhausted.

[babygrey]

Ugh. Heavy bleeding again today. So sad. The blood is somewhere in between red and brown tho, so maybe that's good? So hard to look at blood and think of it as good.
Greenm, I'm sorry you are going through this too.

[DaisyMae08]

I had this at 12.5 weeks. When I went to the bathroom, I sat down and heard this gush into the water before I even started urinating (TMI?) and when I looked the toilet was FILLED with bright red blood. We went to the ER and on the U/S everything was fine. It happened again, 3 days later and I went to my regular doctor. The U/S tech there found the clot which was less than 1cm in diameter. My doctor didn't think it would cause a problem. I spotted for 2 1/2 - 3 weeks after that and then it just stopped. I'm 20.5 weeks now and haven't had any more bleeding and the baby is doing just fine. I know I was further along and my clot was small, but it is possible for things to progress normally. No sign of any clot or any issues on my last ultrasound which was 2 weeks ago when they did the anatomy scan. All is well.

[greenmulberry]

Sorry for everyone that is going through this. It is really nerve wracking! I am very very mildly spotting again, and seeing anything on the toilet paper freaks me out.

[greenmulberry]

DaisyMae your story makes me feel more hopeful.

I know how you must have felt when you saw that toilet full of blood, it is like the LAST thing you expect to see and really shocking!! I am glad you are back on the path of normal progress. When I saw all that blood I was sure it was over.

I am waiting for my 20 week US, and they are going to check on how things are going. I hope everything looks good.

[mamaki]

I've been reading through the posts as I think I am experiencing something similar. I'm not sure that its a SCB but it could be.

I'm 9wks +1 day pregnant and I had some very heavy red bleeding starting at 4pm yesterday. It was heavy for a few hours and then slowed, is now light bleeding. I went to ER and had bloodwork done but they couldn't do the ultrasound until this morning as it was closed for the day. The ultrasound this morning showed baby alive and well, moving and a beating heart. I had been so prepared for it to be dead, I cried tears of happiness to know it was okay. My HCG levels have also increased in in the past 5 days. I still feel nauseous which is also encouraging me.

I know I'm still at high risk for a miscarriage but I'm cautiously positive. It's reassuring to know so many of you have had heavy bleeding during pregnancy and delivered a healthy baby. I'm going to rest and take the week off work. I still have my 3 and 6 yr old to get to school each day but I'll be resting other than taking care of them.

OP - how are you doing now?

[frugalmum]

hi, I too have had SH with a previous pregnancy and have it now with my current pregnancy. I have had 7 pregnancies so 2 with SH and 5 normal.

Like you OP I found myself yesterday standing in a pool of blood with blood literally pouring out of me. It stopped after a few minutes. Sono showed baby is fine with heartbeat (I am am about 7 weeks). However I am despairing a bit as I started bleeding again today despite being in bed most of the day-- not quite as heavy as yesterday.

My other pregnancy with SH produced a full term baby girl so there is definitely hope. The risk of miscarriage is higher than a normal pregnancy but there is a good chance of a happy outcome. I'm despairing right now though because my last SH started later in pregnancy (2nd trimester) and was not this heavy.

hugs and positive thoughts to everyone!

[DanielleT]

You're not alone as you can see; i too have experienced a SCH however mine not only costed me my twins (SCH was far too large) but nearly my own life...my began with light bleeding, i had the u/s, one baby was already lost, but the other had a heartbeat but by the next day i was bleeding so heavily that i was rushed to ER...they couldn't control the bleeding i had gone into shock and they opted for a d&c just to save me; i wasn't sure if baby b was ok or not at that time...but as i was going in for the procedure they informed me that i had lost them both...very scary situation; and although i know my situation was rare it's still very scary to have bleeding of any kind...I became quite obsessed about them after having one and i've read more positive outcomes then not and it's quite common...
hang in there, take it easy and try not to worry (i know easier said than done)