"I wasn’t listened to at all"

I started noticing brown discharge just around 10weeks + on a Saturday and I thought nothing of it. The next day, I started noticing fresh blood. I called the Rubislaw ward to ask what I should do and I was told the closest date for scan was Thursday. The person on the phone said I should call back when I start filling my pad. I was so scared, I was confused, I didn’t know what to do. I knew something was wrong but each time I called, I was told there was nothing they could do than for me to wait till Thursday.

Later that night, I went to A&E because my bleeding was getting worse, it wasn’t as small as it was during the day. After a 2-hr wait, we were attended to and they said they are unable to do anything, that it would be a case of contacting Rubislaw ward to discuss me with them. The nurse came back and said they can’t take me in for a scan until Thursday. I went home heartbroken, I felt like screaming. 

The following day, I started cramping and the bleeding had gotten worse, it had progressed to lumpy blood clots, I phoned them to explain the situation and the person on the phone just told me to take paracetamol and keep changing my pad. At this point I was in serious pain emotionally and physically. I phoned them again and I was told the same thing, that there is no scanning space and that I should just keep changing my pad and that I should phone back when it gets full within an hour.

When I could no longer bear it, I phoned them again and I was eventually told to come to the ward for assessment. I got there alongside my sister who accompanied me and it took hours for us to be assessed because the midwife was waiting for the assessment room to be free. By the time she got round to me, I had bled too much and my baby was gone. After about 3-4hrs in the ward, I eventually got a scan to confirm I had miscarried. 

My experience was horrible, the people who spoke to me on the phone had no single empathy. I was just being told to take paracetamol as if I was just having a headache. All my explanations of what I was experiencing were falling on deaf ears. I cried so much because I wasn’t listened to at all, I had no one to turn to. I feel like the healthcare system I thought I could rely on failed me. I would at least assume that an Early Pregnancy assessment unit would have a great level of empathy as they probably come across cases of miscarriage more often, but it was totally lacking in every single person who spoke to me on the phone that day.