pregnancy with blood clot ?

I don't know if this is the right forum but I thought you ladies might have fresher experience. If it's not in the right place Mods please move it for me

A co workers wife just found out she is 12 weeks along. They went for an US yesterday and the Dr told them that she has a blood clot and it may be a sign that she is going to miscarry. This would not be her first loss. I believe she has suffered a few in her young life. The Dr said he wanted to see her again on Tuesday and if the pregnancy is still there they will see where they can go from that point. They did no blood tests just the ultra sound. Is it true that if a woman has a bloodclot that she is miscarrying? Is there any advice I can give him other than don't stress her and give her whatever she wants.

 

With my girls I had a subchorionic hemmorrage There was blood behind Addison's placenta that was at around 9 weeks. I bled esp. after being up and about. My dr told me that there was nothing I could do to improve it - and that it would either get better and she would be ok or worse and I would miscarry. I put myself on bedrest and I stopped bleeding and as you know the girls are fine! BUT in June of this year I lost a baby due to a "large clot" this was at 6 weeks. So I have seen it go both ways. I would advise your friend to stay off of her feet as much as possible and not to lift ANYTHING. I feel so badly for her and I hope and pray her baby is just fine.

she may want to talk to her OB about being tested for clotting disorders.

 

I too had a subchorionic hemmorage with my last pregnancy. I was told 3 times that I was probably miscarrying...at 5 weeks, 7 weeks and 11 weeks. The clot was bigger than the baby's sack (and kept getting bigger) until after 12 weeks. It stayed in my uterus until after I delivered her...and honestly I think it came out a few weeks after I had her. It was pretty big (not to get too graphic, but I actually had to 'help' pull it out...icky...still gives me the creeps.) So tell your friend not to give up. The most important advice I can give is that she should put herself on as much bedrest as she can. My bleeding didn't stop until I pretty much stopped all activity... all lifting...all vacuuming...any extra walking or work. The uterus does need time to heal. Doctors will not tell you to do this because there is no statistical evidence that it works, but then again there really isn't a way to study the same woman with the same problems in the same pregnancy both ways...with bedrest and without. But I found countless women on-line who confirmed that their bleeding didn't stop until they got off their feet and gave themselves time to heal.

Also, a more positive sign is if the clot is not behind the placenta. My big clot was not near my placenta, but my bleed at 11 weeks was from behind about a third of the placenta, so clearly it was the placenta that was bleeding out. The tech didn't give me much hope based on this u/s. But the positive thing was that the clot itself wasn't forming under the placenta. If the clot is behind the placenta, and remains there it's less likely that this portion will reconnect... so then you essentially have a dead part of the placenta there. I forget the numbers, but I think you can have up to half of your placenta basically disconnected and still have a positive outcome. But obviously the more of the placenta that has the clot behind it, the worse things look. The really sucky thing is that a miscarriage in this manner has nothing to do with the health of the baby...it's just a random problem with the placenta. It's harder to think of losing a healthy baby just because the placenta has problems attaching to the wall of the uterus. BTW this issue is more common in women who have uterine scars...like a c/s scar or scars from fibroids being removed.

 

Thank you so much ladies. I will mention about the blood clotting issues to my co worker and tell him that it is very important that she not do any cleaning or much moving around. Thankfully she is not working right now.

I imagine the worst part about this whole thing would be her (and him) thinking that if they do lose the baby it might me because she did not "rest" enough. I don;t want her or him to think that

 

I don't think she should think that... for one if her placenta is separated significantly there really is nothing she can do about that. And honestly, the main reason I rested as much as I could, given my circumstances of needing to care for 3 other kids, was so that I wouldn't feel guilty if something did happen! As long as she is doing everything she can to put her feet up as much as possible then that should reassure her that she is doing all she can, and it really is out of her hands. Honestly, if her baby is on track as far as being the right size for 12 weeks I would be more optimistic about things working out, than if she had this issue at say 5 weeks or 7 weeks. She's closer to being in the clear than if she were earlier on...but still the crunch time remains because it's only after the first trimester that the placenta really kicks into high gear. So the big question will be if the baby can get enough from whatever portion of the placenta is still connected. (I'm assuming the clot is behind the placenta...if it isn't, then I'd worry even less.)

 

How is she doing?