How normal is bleeding during pregnancy?

I haven’t personally went through this, but I know many woman that have. It can happen for a variety of reasons. Some are “normal” in a sense, but others are because of abnormal causes.

One reason could be sex (if you had it before the bleeding). There is a ton of extra blood flow going to your cervix right now and it can get irritated very easily. Sex can cause irritation and bleeding sometimes.

Another reason I know of is a subchorionic hematoma. It’s basically a blood clot under the placenta. What happens is the placenta pulls away from the uterus in some spots (can be toward the end of the placenta or in the middle of it. This causes the blood clot. If it is at one of the ends, it can cause bleeding. If it’s in the middle, it may not cause bleeding at that time, but could at a later point or it could be reabsorbed during the pregnancy. Subchorionic hematomas are abnormal and not very common, but once diagnosed (through an ultrasound) they can be cared for (everything from limited your exertion, to bedrest, to medications) depending on the size and location of the subchorionic hematoma.

I have a subchorionic hematoma that is under my placenta in a way that it has not caused any bleeding at this point. Every time I have an ultrasound, they measure it to see if it’s changing. They found it when I was 5 weeks along, verified it was still there and hadn’t really changed any at 9 weeks along and then again at 12 weeks. They won’t look again until my anatomy scan at 23 weeks unless I start bleeding.

When I talked to my OB about it, he said that if I start bleeding, to come in so they can check the baby. As long as the baby still has a heartbeat, they will do everything they can to keep the pregnancy going. He told me that he once had a patient with a really bad subchorionic hematoma that bled quite a bit. He said she got to the point where she would start bleeding and have to get blood transfusions because her blood counts would get low, but the baby stayed alive throughout it all and she made it to term and had a healthy baby.

I feel like I’m rambling now. Hopefully you’ll get some answers on Monday about what they think caused the bleeding and more recommendations for you. Sometimes they really don’t know what caused it. It’s great that it stopped and I hope it doesn’t happen again for you.

@Seaofclouds Very good information. Thank you! I should also mention that I hadnt had sex yesterday (or the day before). I didn’t experience any cramping with the bleeding either. The dr did mention something about the placenta but he was mumbling and kind of brushed it off. The sonogram tech said there wasn’t any bleeding in the uterus or anywhere showing up on the sonogram at all. The dr told me it was from an outside source and not coming from anything that would harm the baby.

@ItalianPrincess1217 Hopefully when you follow up, they can give you more information about what’s going on. Sometimes ER doctors seem to just want to say, okay, you’re good, your doctor will explain the rest and leave you hanging for a few days. It sucks. You should also ask your doctor at what point they would want you to go to labor and delivery instead of the ER. For my OB, it’s 20 weeks. So if I had anything going on before 20 weeks (after office hours), I would go to the ER, but after 20 weeks, I’d go to labor and delivery. If it’s during office hours, I call them and they’ll either squeeze me in for a quick check up or they’ll send me to the ER (before 20 weeks) or labor and delivery (after 20 weeks). I’m glad they at least told you it’s not something that would harm the baby, that’s great news!

I had it – it was around December and I got pregnant around Labor Day, so I was pretty much well along. I did not have sex previously, and the day before I did nothing strenuous except drive and visit friends. The bleeding started on a Sunday morning and I went to the mall that day, concerned but waiting to see what would happen. The bleeding seemed to have stopped early afternoon. I called the doctor Sunday evening, and I had an appointment for Tuesday anyway. He told me it’s not normal, we’ll check it Tuesday but if you want to come in tomorrow you can. So I went in Monday, had it checked. It was totally stopped by then. The doctor said the baby was fine, I would still see some blood coming down because it was up there, so I might see it for a day or two. She said no heavy lifting, no carrying laundry up stairs or anything.

I went on to have no more complications, had the baby May 31 of that year (2007) and she is now 3½, happy, healthy, beautiful!

Good Luck and please post an update as to how things turn out if you like!

JCA
The update lady

I once read that 1 in 5 women experience bleeding during pregnancy, I am not sure how accurate that number is. I used to walk with a woman in my neighborhood who had bleeding throughout all of her 4 pregnancies, perfect babies. She thought she was losing the pregnancy every time.

Did they do a blood test at the hospital? If they did they checked your HCG. You can get a follow up blood test, which should be inexpensive, two days later, and if your HCG is not doubling you know something is going wrong. If it is doubling you can feel more confident that everything is ok.

@Jleslie Yes they did a blood test. The levels were well over what they needed to do an ultrasound so they said that was a good sign. If the levels had been lower than 800, it would have been a cause for concern.

@ItalianPrincess1217 What matters is if your HCG is increasing or decreasing, they don’t know with one blood test, they know with two blood tests. The ER only cares about determining if they have to do something for you immediately. It is a good sign that they saw the fetus on ultrasound and everything looks good, but the blood test would tell you if your body is losing the pregnancy. It isn’t a must do, if God forbid you are losing it, eventually you will begin to cramp like a period most likely.

I’m still bleeding today. It’s so hard to believe nothing is wrong.

You know what I did? I prayed. I am not overly religious but I prayed because I figured I could use it. Say a prayer. Also, lay down and take it easy.

If you’re continuing to bleed you need to call your physician.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001906

When I was pregnant with my daughter I experienced bleeding about six weeks in. I assumed the worst as I had previously had a miscarriage and the miscarriage started the exact same way.

I went in to see my doctor and she advised me that I was probably having a miscarriage and then she scheduled an ultrasound. This happened all over Christmas and I couldn’t get into the ultrasound until after Boxing Day. Through this time the bleeding slowed down and then stopped. I told my mother that I still felt pregnant.

When I had the ultrasound they found that she was still there. That was strange as I had mourned losing her.

Eight months later I had a healthy 9 lb baby girl.

Try not to stress about it.

I’d talk to a different doctor…..

@jca I’ve been doing a lot of praying :)

You’ll be OK @ItalianPrincess1217….I would be scared too, but it’s probably nothing. I’ll be praying for you too.