Sub-chorionic Hemorrhage Advice

M.,
I am a labor and delivery nurse and I have seen several patients who have had a history of this. Most of them do fine. Last week is the first time I have seen a patient lose a pregnancy after one of these and I have been doing labor and delivery for over 6 years. I pray that everything turns out okay for you. I would just keep a close eye on it. If you are ever concerned about it don't hesitate to go to the hospital to have it checked out. That is why they are there. Anytime you are bleeding heavy like a period you need to go in to be checked out. Good luck and I will be praying for you.

P.

M., I had a sub-chorionic hemorrhage also at about 6-7 weeks. I had heavy bleeding one night, then it pretty much stopped by the next day. After spending a day in the emergency room (I hadn't even had my first OB appt) I found out I was having twins! You could clearly see the hemorrhage/hematoma on one of the baby's placentas, but after a few weeks it had totally gone away and I'm now 25 weeks with healthy twin girls. A friend of my husbands went through the same thing at about the same time, but her bleeding lasted much longer, resulting in bed rest for about a month. She is also doing great now in her pregnancy.

It is definitely scary, but I was reassured it's a relatively common problem that usually resolves itself. Just remember to take it easy until it goes away! Good luck!

J.

I had this in my first successful pregnancy as well as I was told it was the reason for all of my losses. Don't panic, though. The body has a tremendous way of recovering and so long as the hemmorhage is not where the placenta is attached, you should be okay. I had an enormous number of ultrasounds in my "risky" pregnancy. I was also being seen by a specialist that did treatments using immunoglobulin g IV's to help rid the hemorrhages. I had several and mine got so close to detaching my baby's placenta that I honestly didn't know if I would have a baby or not. My problem actually had to do with an autoimmune response my body had to the baby. My body was producing natural killer cells that recognized the baby as a cancer rather than a part of me. So my body responded in a way to remove the "foreign object" from my system. I had to take prednisone to depress my immune system as well as receive the IV treatments. They also did leukocyte injections to help train my body how to wake up and recognize that I was suppose to be supporting that pregnancy rather than aborting the "cancer". Most physicians haven't even heard of such treatments and in all honesty I don't know that it would be fair to say that all subchorianic hemorrhages are there for the same exact reason, though there is usually no testing that gets done to find why it was there unless something does go wrong. Something is causing them to appear for you and hopefully yours will do as your dr said....dissolve on its own. Ultrasound equipment makes a difference, and much more was revealed on the more high tech 3-d versus the standard dr office 2d...some dr offices do actually have the more high tech in their office. My dr had to check for blood flow through the uterus, and the equipment was so detailed that we were able to see all fingers and toes semi-webbed together (before they naturally separate) at 8 weeks. My hemorrhages disappeared slowly over the 1st trimester and by 16 weeks were gone. I was then told to slowly get off bed rest. I didn't show any signs of bleeding except for a little spotting upon finding out I was pregnant. After that, all was seen by ultrasound. I was on strict bedrest and only allowed to move when I had to get up to pee. Otherwise I had to pack a cooler by my bedside with food for the day while hubby was at work. My recommendation is don't stress, breathe deeply and try to relax as much as you can. I would not do much at all and I would be on bed rest until your dr sees no hemorrhage on ultrasound. You are in a much safer zone now being in the 2nd trimester so be sure to keep that fact in mind. It really is more likely to reduce at this point. Just keep close to the dr and like I said, try not to stress. Hang in there! You will be in my prayers.

B. :)

These can be quite common. I have posted on a lot of pg boards while going through infertility and recurrent loss, and have seen many women with these. The odds are definately in your favor that you will have a normal pg. Bleeding in pg is also more common than many realize. I can only imagine how scary it must be. ((HUGS))

I was just diagnosed with sub-chronic hemorrhaging. Im 7 weeks and 2 days. And scared out of my mind. Im so worried something will happen to my "lil pea".
The first bleeding episode happened at 5 weeks & 6 days. I went to the ER (hadn't even had my first OBGYN appointment). I seen the heartbeat, and of course I cried. The second episode happened at 6 weeks and 3 days...this time I was certain I lost my lil pea because of a blood clot and major cramping. But after yet another ER visit I was reassured that lil pea was fine. Found out at 7 weeks I had this "condition" and my OBGYN was there to reassure me that I could carry out a normal pregnancy. As for now I guess it's a waiting game.
I'm so relieved to hear some happy stories. And so happy that everything ended well for most. I just hope and pray that my special someone and I have the same out come with our lil pea :)
so praying for those who are going through this.

I'm not sure that I had what you did, but I bled until the 16th week. It first happend at 6 weeks and was enough to fill a pad. I went to the ER, had an ultrasound and all was fine. My doctor continued to have me checked every week to two weeks just to be sure. I would have bouts where I would bleed pretty heavily with some cramps and then there would be nothing for a day or two. By the time I hit the 16th week, all bleeding had stopped. The rest of the pregnancy was great expect for the fact that my son wasn't growing quite as rapidly as he should have. So I was induced a week early and gave birth to a healty boy of 7lbs. 4oz. The doctor that performed the c-section took the placenta for testing and learned that it had been damaged (I think it tried to pull away from the uterus at six weeks when the bleeing started). But the story ended very happily and I'm sure yours will too. The best thing to do is not stress out about it (easier said than done, I know) and know that whatever happens is meant to be. Good luck!

Hello!
I have not personally gone through this, but I have a friend who is currently going through this. She also started spotting very early in her pregnancy. She is currently about 23 weeks along & still bleeding (like you, it is definitly BLEEDING and not spotting.) She is currently away from work on bed rest because there's nothing they can do to stop it. Ultrasounds still show that her baby is doing wonderfully so there aren't any worries in that department so far. She is just needing the bed rest because she is drained from the loss of blood...the baby already steals all of your nutrients and then you lose more through heavier-than-period bleeding...takes its toll! I hope this doesn't sound scary. Other than being really bored, she is doing well and the dr's don't forsee any danger to the baby as long as mom can take it easy.

Good luck!

I haven't heard of anything by that name.

Have they mentioned anything about your placenta? I had a huge bleed (much heavier than a period) around 13 weeks that sent us to the ER. They diagnosed me with placenta previa. I had some restrictions such as lifting and no 'relations' until that resolved just last week. (I'm due the end of April)

I have a friend who had a blood clot(?) where the placenta was trying to attach which caused quite a bit of bleeding. She was put on bedrest for a couple weeks and has been fine *knock on wood* since.

I'd say try to relax (way easier said than done I know). As long as the little one is looking great and the doctors are not worried, there's not much else to do.

Good Luck!

I am sure that now, having been due in July, you have delivered your healthy child. I was researching this topic after many, many attempts on the internet. You are lucky that you did not find very much there. I searched and found ample scarey reports of loss with a few positive reports. The reason I am writing you is because I have a subchorionic bleed, and while I am sure that not all of them are caused by the same thing, I think you should talk with your doctor about blood clotting factors. Subchorionic bleeds have been noted to commonly correlate with Protein S deficiency.

I seen a perinatologist after having an ectopic pregnancy followed by a 37w delivery of a son that lived for only 30 days. He had strokes while I was carrying him. They could not figure out what caused his problems. When I found out that I was pregnant again just two weeks later, I saw a perinatologist who did a bleeding time test and a clotting factor test on me. I was found to have Protein S. While it is currently not standard to have clotting tests ran for all women, it should be. I was on birth control which could have killed me because increased extrogen causes my blood to begin to clot. Further, my entire family (cousins, aunts, uncles, sister, mom, and even husband) were tested for clotting disorders. Every single one of them had some sort of a clotting disorder or another. They are all now on medications to clear these. I have two healthy children thanks to knowing about Protein S and taking two shots of heparin a day (only when pregnant).

Again, this may not pertain to you, but with your history of a subchorionic bleed and if there is a history of any strokes, cvas, or heart attacks in your family, it cannot hurt anything. The test is expensive and that is why it is not performed on all women at their first OB-GYN visit, but my doctor says that in the next ten years it will be.

I was never diagnosed with Sub-chorionic Hemorrhage, but I had the same thing happen to me during my last pregnancy. I had 9 ultrasounds all together. My bleeding didn't start until 21 weeks, but it lasted almost the remainded of the pregnancy, off and on. Every time I would have another ultrasound and baby was always ok. My doctor put me on medical leave and had an emergency plan in place but I delivered a healty baby boy 4 months later with no further problems. I don't think you have anything to worry about even though I know it is scary. Good luck with everything. I am sure it will turn out just as mine did!