[AliciaF]

Hello, I am not officially TTC yet but will be in the next couple of months and I had some questions. My name is Alicia and I am 29 (almost 30!) I have 2 boys who are 5 and 7 and on July 10, 2008 my dh and I lost our beautiful son Clark due to a complete placental abruption at 20 weeks.

I'll give a little background on my last pregnancy as it is pertinent info to my TTCAL questions. I was diagnosed at 5w6d with a subchorionic hemorrhage after going to the ER with bleeding. I was given the speech about it being a dangerous situation and there was the possibility of a threatened miscarriage blah, blah, blah. Most of the time a subchorionic hemorrhage is a rather benign thing that can happen in pregnancies. In subchorionic hemorrhage when the egg implants a bleed forms behind and around the egg. In most cases of subchorionic hemorrhage there is mild 1st tri bleeding and the body either reabsorbs the bleed or it bleeds out. But in some cases the hemorrhage can have tragic consequences, as it did in mine. In my cases I bled for 14 weeks straight, usually brown spotting, with episodes of gushing red blood. Each time I had a big bleed I was seen by the OB, given an ultrasound and told there was nothing they can do. At 16 weeks I started cramping along with the bleeding and was put on bedrest. Blood is a serious irritant to the uterus and was causing the cramping. At that point I was also diagnosed with a complete placenta previa, increasing the bleeding.

At 18w I was hospitalized for contractions, given and IV, monitored and sent home. In the next 1 1/2 weeks my bleeding increased substantially. I was contracting every 3 minutes for several hours every day but they always stopped and I was always told that at that stage in the pregnancy, nothing could be done.

At 19w3d I bled heavily in the morning with contractions, saw my OB and had an ultrasound. I was told the previa was gone! They also felt my hemorrhage was "organizing" and shrinking. All good news. At 2:00pm that day I started contracting again and at 4:00pm I had a massive hemorrhage with 15-20 lemon sized clots along with a lot of blood. I was seen in the ER and they did another ultrasound and I was told I had low amniotic fluid but they couldn't do anything and again sent me home.

The next day I saw my OB and he did yet another ultrasound and said my fluid level was ok and everything looked good still. The next night I went into labor, it couldn't be stopped, I fully abrupted and our son was born stillborn at 19w6d.

The labor was very rough on me, I dilated from 0-10cm in less than 2 hours and suffered a massive hemorrhage when I abrupted. I lost over 4 pints of blood and nearly died following the delivery. My uterus clamped and wouldn't allow delivery of the placenta, I had 5 people working on getting a vein to give me a blood transfusion and fluids and had to endure a manual extraction of the placenta without any anesthesia or even pain killers. I was in shock, passing out and bleeding badly.

I am healing now but am brokenhearted.

My dh and I still really want another baby. I was given the ok to TTC in 3 months by my OB and told that my chances of having a repeat subchorionic hemorrhage or another delivery with a hemorrhage are low, no higher than a woman who hasn't had those in a previous pregnancy.

My questions are:

*How long did you wait after your loss to start ttc again?
*Has anyone here ttc after a subchorionic hemorrhage?
*What method of birth control did you use between your loss and ttc?

I'm sure I'll have more questions and I greatly appreciate any answers to these questions.

TIA!

[mom2kaisnkam]

Hi Alicia,
I am so sorry for your loss. I miscarried at 5w 3d. I could not imagine going through what you went through. You are a strong woman.

*How long did you wait after your loss to start ttc again? 1 cycle
*Has anyone here ttc after a subchorionic hemorrhage? no I have not
*What method of birth control did you use between your loss and ttc? we used ortho conceptrol gel

[MrsPoe]

Alicia,

I am so sorry to hear about the loss of your sweet little boy, Clark.

My first was stillborn at 27w5d on April 15, 2007. I was told by the dr. to wait until after my test results came back. We didn't have an autopsy done so after 6 weeks they said I could have my blood drawn. About a week later they called me with the results and we found out that I have 2/3 blood clotting disorders and started me on baby aspirin and 5mg of folic acid along with the prenatal I was already taking. It took us 5 years to even get pregnant with her and I just didn't want to wait, but we managed to wait until my second cycle. So basically after my first af is when we began ttc again. Looking back, now I am glad that it didn't happen right away because I needed that time to grieve my little girl, to seperate the pregnancies, and to be in a better place mentally. I know some women who have got pregnant right away and didn't have any problems though, so that should be between you, your dh, and of course your dr. I strongly suggest waiting until after the first af though. And with your placenta previa issues, it might be worth it to have the panel of blood clotting disorders ran on you. Insurance will almost always pay for that testing after stillbirth. They make you wait until hcg is out of your system before they get accurate results though.

Dh and I didn't use any birth control while we were waiting except for the pull out method. Knowing that I wasn't very fertile anyways was the reasoning behind that for me, plus with my blood clotting disorders hormonal birth control is out of the question for me. Birth control can mess up your cycles and if you plan on ttc as soon as possible it might not be best for you either. Just in my opinion, condoms or withdraw method are the best if you plan on ttc again soon.

Will you be seeing your doctor for a 6 week checkup? That is a good time to talk to him about your particular case. Let him know that you want to try again and want to know when you should start and if there is testing that you can do? For now, be sure to take care of yourself. Be sure to eat, sleep, and get some exercise when you can. All of these things are easy to forget to do when you have been through all of this.

[bcowley]

Alicia,

I am so sorry for your loss. I too lost my baby to what my doctor's called a subcorionic hematoma. I started bleeding around 9weeks and I lost my baby at 11weeks. It's only been a week since my lost so I really don't have any answers for you yet. My doctor told me I could start ttc after 1 cycle. Because we have issues with infertility we will be ttc right away. I just want you to know that you're not alone. This is a great place of confort for me and I hope it will be for you too. (((HUGS))))

[jenn27]

I'm so sorry for the loss of your little boy Clark. I can't imagine how that must feel. I m/c @ 5 wks and I was devasted. I hate to have to welcome any new member to the board because of the circumstances but I am glad that you found us. This board has soooo many wonderful, caring, and supportive ladies. I don't really have any answers to your questions because my experience was different. However, I am sure someone in here can give you the answers you are looking for. I would ask the dr how long they recommend you waiting before trying to conceive. The main thing is that you your body is prepared and healthy for the next pregnancy and that you are emotionally ready. I hope that you find comfort here and that you can begin ttc when you are ready and get your beautiful little miracle soon. You will be in my thoughts and prayers.

[mom 2 haley & tyler]

I am deeply sorry for your loss. I m/c my baby last August at 7w1d due to a subchronic hematoma. I am currently pg again and have had no such issues this time. I wish you all the best and hope that when you try again you will get a BFP quickly and have a healthy baby in the end.

[kellyanne]

Alicia,

I'm so sorry for your heartbreaking loss. Even though it was a fluke thing and your next pregnancy will most likely be perfectly fine, it is still emotionally scarring. Several of us here that have had normal pregnancies before our losses, often talk about how we wish we could go back to the "good ole days" when pregnacy was exciting instead of scary and filled with worry. So, even though your doc will telll you when you are physically ready to TTC, you may want to also consider the emotional stress that will come with another pregnancy. I personally wanted to TTC right away and was given the ok since my loss was early. Unfortunately, I m/c again. After that I waited 2 cycles, which was hard, but ultimately good for me, I think. I conceived again and am currently pg. As for birth control while waiting to TTC, we just used condoms. Again, I'm very sorry for your loss, but glad that you found us here.