"I had a miscarriage"

When I was supposed to be 8 weeks pregnant, I had quite a bit of brown blood loss in one go, followed by some spotting. I rang 111 who put me through to an out of hours doctor as it was Sunday. He was concerned by my symptoms so he told me to go to Pinderfields’ EPU as soon as possible. I asked what time I needed to be there and he just said “as soon as you can get there”.

I set off straight away and it took me between 20 - 30 minutes. On the way there, I got a call telling me which part of the hospital to go to. I then got another call telling me to go to another unit because the first one was apparently closing. When I got to that unit, I was sent back downstairs to the original unit instead. When I arrived, member of staff flippantly said “Well you’re late so I’m not sure if they’ll be able to see you. ” I was asked to sit by the reception desk, in flood of tears, until a nurse came and asked me about the bleeding. Thankfully, nobody else was in the unit whatsoever.

The nurse said my doctor shouldn’t have sent me and that because of the pandemic, they’re avoiding seeing women for “small amounts of bleeding” where possible. Said he “should’ve been more honest” and said it’s not that serious and I might not be scanned. Noticing how upset I was that I wouldn’t know if I was miscarrying or not, the nurse then asked if I had a full bladder. I didn’t as I had to get to the hospital so quickly so I couldn’t prepare. They said “well we can’t scan you, the sonographer is going home. ”

They took me to ask questions and take my blood pressure etc, and then took me to another room to wait for the GP. They asked the healthcare assistant to get something from another room who huffed “I’ve just locked it! ” I also heard “in the middle of a pandemic” grumbled a couple of times as I waited in the room.

The doctor came in and they were lovely. They and the nurse did an exam and said that my cervix was closed but I had a small ectropion. They were nice but made me feel silly for having gone in and the nurse said the GP I spoke to made it sound “worse than it was”.

The light spotting/bleeding continued for a couple of days, then stopped. Not long after in Week 9, it started again. This time, I sent a request for treatment or a referral through to my own GP on their online system. My GP called the next day and booked my into St James’s EPU the following day.

They asked questions and did an exam. All of the staff were absolutely lovely and made me feel like they wanted to listen and help. They booked me in for a scan at 1: 30 so I had to wait for that. I was devastated to hear that the baby had stopped growing at 7 weeks and had no heartbeat. The staff were still lovely and as helpful as anyone could’ve been to me in that state.

I am glad I was sent there and not to Pinderfields. This situation was traumatic enough but could’ve been so much worse if not for the kindness of the staff at St James’s. I am still coming to terms with what has happened but I am heartbroken to know I have unnecessarily spent three weeks looking at pictures of what my baby should look like, talking about names with my fiancé and imagining my life with my baby that had died before I went to Pinderfields. I understand that it was early and there’s a pandemic, but they weren’t busy in that unit. The sonographer didn’t pass my mum by the only door out of there, so I'm sure they didn’t leave. They also didn’t need to make me feel silly and like a nuisance when I was clearly distraught.