r/babyloss • u/SpicyCryBby • 16h ago
2nd trimester loss 16 week miscarriage due to placental abruption
It's going to be a LONG one, but I think I'm ready to share my story in hopes that it may connect with someone else (or even help me heal).
3 weeks ago I had a miscarriage at 16wks due to placental abruption.
A week before my miscarriage my husband is out of town and I start having some odd symptoms, but no fever or spotting. Yet I still feel like something is wrong. Friday morning, the symptoms start to pick up with a bit of cramping and I finally cave and have my husband take me to our OB and they do a full work up. Ultrasound looks good, urine is good just dehydrated, but WBC was at 16 which was on the cusp but with no other symptoms so they weren't sure if it was the start or end of something - they schedule me for a F/U the following Thursday and tell me to go into the ER if anything changes. Things subside and by Sunday it seems we are out of the woods. Since I'm feeling better and have missed my husband the past week, we have intercourse and all seems well.
Monday morning comes and there is some pink/light red spotting - we just had sex the night before and spotting is common so I wasn't too panicked. Tuesday comes and its not really lightening up and seems to be pretty mucus-y (like more than just semen lol) but thankfully I have an OB appt same day so we chat I fill her in on everything, I hear baby's heartbeat on the doppler, she does a cervical exam to confirm nice closed cervix agrees it's a little more mucus than usual but not uncommon and she takes a sample to run a culture test that will take a day or 2.
Wednesday morning I go to work and things just start to go downhill. The bleeding and cramping/pain pick up and I call the OB and they say I probably just have a friable cervix and if the cramping becomes unbearable to come in (I have no idea what that means or what the threshold is) but by 2pm it becomes unbearable and uncomfortable for me to be at work as the cramping starts to intensify so I go home. The cramping turns to timed 5 min contractions that I try to fight off for an hour and it finally hits me when I'm leaned over my bed sobbing that I might be in labor. I hobble to the bathroom thinking it might help and of course i think i have to "poop" so I push and the entire sac with my 16wk baby AND the placenta drop into my toilet. I start sobbing hysterically and I call my husband at work and he races home. We go to the ER I tell them I delivered everything at home like there's nothing left but maybe some tissue in my uterus (they seem skeptical this happened but finally believe me after the ultrasound). All things considered, uterus and bleeding look good but they confirm that I have a double infection of both a UTI and BV. At this point we assume this is the cause of the complete miscarriage and we both heavily grieve and start to blame ourselves for not going in sooner.
I schedule a F/U with OB on Monday. We go to my appt on Monday at this point just hoping for some answers and good news that I can conceive again. After review, my OB gives her medical opinion that neither infections were the cause and thinks the cause of the miscarriage a placental abruption (hence why EVERYTHING came out in one go). We can try again as soon as we're ready and there should be no reason why I can't have another healthy pregnancy as most women conceive within 3 months and have healthy pregnancies.
It's all just been something I never could have prepared myself for or even thought would happen to us (naive, I know) and just having to deal with both the mental AND physical trauma have been a struggle. Part of me is still guilty because it has been a hard pregnancy, but of course I still wanted my baby and should have just been grateful.
I'm at the point where I feel empty and all I want is to be pregnant again, even though it won't replace my baby boy. I'm so anxious and worried that I won't be able to conceive as easily as I did before and feel like time is my enemy and I'm starting to obsess over making my body heal and getting my period as soon as possible.