How do you know if you are having a miscarriage?

[summerly]

I am supposed to be 7 weeks tomorrow but this afternoon I started having a brown coloured blood discharge and stomach cramps. On Friday morning just before this weekend I had a huge cramp that woke me up, then later that afternoon I had a tiny spot of red blood but nothing after that until now. I still have nausea but not as much as I expected to have, judging from previous pregnancy experience. I am booked in to see the OB on Tuesday morning for the first official check up and scan to get a correct EDD anyway. If it is a miscarriage is there anything they can do? Is it worth seeing a doctor earlier? Just feel like **** now. :(

[our little treasures]

Brown discharge can be normal, but red can be as well. I think put your feet up and relax until you can get in and see ob or make an aapointment and ask gp for u/s referal. If pain gets bad go to hosi as they can do u/s etc!!!

good luck and take it easy

[Mummabear]

Summerly - I'm sorry that I can't offer you any first hand advice as **thankfully** my only pregnancy was smooth sailing. If it were me I would be at my nearest hospital right now. I don't know if there is anything that they can do if it is the worst case scenario, but peace of mind would make me go. If you can hold out until your OB appointment then obviously he would be able to make sure everything is okay for you. Sorry I can't be of any real help. I hope everything is okay :)

Larissa

[mummycloud]

Summerly, How scarey you poor thing.

I had brown discharge with my second and third. With my 4th I had no bleeding or brown discharge, but I had LOADS of cramping. It could be completly normal, or it could be a miscarriage, ectopic, it could be inplantation, could be a number of things. I would put my feet up and then see a doctor tomorrow. If the pain gets worse and/or you start bleeding then go to the hospital.

[cosmic]

Hi Summerly, I know exactly how you feel as I had brown discharge and some red bleeding on and off from week 5 to week 7. It was a terrible, scary time. I never had any major cramps, though at one stage I thought I was having AF kind of cramps but I couldn't work out if it was actually more like wind pain since I was quite bloated at the time as well.

I phoned my GP when it started and she said if I had pain or much heavier bleeding to go straight to casualty. But she said as long as I was not in great pain, the best thing was to rest and to go to the hospital the next morning when they have a special clinic for these cases. Basically she said not to go and sit in casualty for 5 hours unless it was a real emergency (cramping and heavy bleeding).

So based on that, I guess the message I would pass on to you would be the same. If you have your appt tomorrow, wait until tomorrow, but if it gets worse, then yes, get in and see someone. A lot of pain might mean an ectopic and of course you want to know about those ASAP!

The good news is that all my bleeding settled down and now at 12 weeks we are both doing fine. Shereejoy also had a lot of bleeding and some cramping and back-ache in the early stages and her bub is fine now too.. so it can happen for all sorts of reasons and isn't necessarily a sign of something disastrous. If you go to the thread I started in the Pregnancy Health Issues called "5 weeks pregnant and spotting" you will read lots of really positive stories of women who had bleeding and ended up with healthy bubs. So if you need to feel better that might do it for you.

Will be thinking of you. Let us know how you go. :)

[tickle]

I had some bright red spotting with my first preg. Not knowing what to do I first went to the hospital (Saturday night) who were very insensitive and said they can't do anything in a very rude way. I went to the doctor the next day and he gave me a referral for a u/s. I think mainly to ease my mind and it did.
I think it is fairly common to have bleeding, esp in the first weeks of pregnancy. Hang in there, I'm thinking of you!!

Ellen

[summerly]

Thanks everyone, I'll go see the doc tomorrow and get the works done. It just doesn't help that I am feeling so emotional as well, but the bleeding has stopped today so far. Just having been pregnant before and never really had anything like this, it is a bit worrying.

[dec05mum]

Hi Summerly,

I wanted to let you know what my OB said as I suffered some very bad cramping and brownish bleeding/discharge when I was in my 9th week.
He stated that even though bleeding is never a good thing during pregnancy if the discharge /blood is brown in appearance it is usually old blood,and not usually a sign of m/c.
I'm glad that the bleeding has stopped today!Definately a good sign..I'm sure that your Dr will confirm your little bean is fine!!!!! :)