"Recent miscarriage - from the appalling to the brilliant"

I was 7 weeks pregnant and started bleeding on and off - occasionally heavily, couple of possible clots and went to see my GP. From Mumsnet and the internet I had expected some reassurance, that maybe it wasn't a miscarriage and some help to investigate it.

Instead my GP just said 'yes, it sounds like you have miscarried. Do a pregnancy test next week to confirm it if you want to'. And that was it. No advise on anything, no help to confirm it - just a few days bleeding, a bit of a wait and then I could confirm. 'If I wanted to'. He gave me a handwritten letter to give to A&E over the weekend if the bleeding got very heavy - so I wouldn't have to wait.

I left pretty stunned and miserable. I was also killing myself with hope that maybe it wasn't a miscarriage - there are so many stories of doom and gloom that end up OK - online at least. I couldn't start to face up to what had happened when I was still hoping it hadn't happened. The bleeding was on off and like a light period, mostly more spotting than a big blood loss.

Mumsnet support persuaded me to go to the local early pregnancy unit to get some confirmation one way or another.

They were brilliant. It was at St. Thomas' in London and they were kind and sympathetic throughout - very caring but also very thorough and professional. At every stage, even after the scan, they were totally empathetic to the fact that I was or might be hoping it was still all OK - and at every stage of investigation, as the loss was confirmed they shared the news with sympathy and understanding.

The only negative was the wait - I was there 4 hours the first day and 2 hours after 48 hours for a blood test. Clearly it is a much in demand service that needs more resource.