Bleeding During Early Pregnancy

During the 6th week of pregnancy for my first baby, I experienced bleeding when I woke up from an afternoon nap. It was not mere spotting but I could see fresh red blood. I was very scared and immediately blamed myself for going to sleep under some thick covers in a hot room. I had read that one of the "Things You Should Not Do During Pregnancy" is "You Should Avoid Raising Your Body Temperature" and "You Should Not Use A Sauna, Hot Tubs Or Take Long Hot Baths" and this caused my mind to go into a frenzy of self blame. (Mothers are worry warts and quite often blame themselves when things go wrong.)

At this early point of my pregnancy, I had not made a doctor's appointment yet as I had only recently discovered that I was pregnant using two home pregnancy tests kits. So I immediately went to see a doctor. She told me that I was experiencing a threatened miscarriage and told me to wait and see before going back to her again in 5 days. It was a long 5 days of worry as I continued to have on and off spotting.

At the second doctor's appointment, I was prescribed progresterone pills (Duphaston) but she said I could continue to wait and see if I didn't wish to take them. I decided to wait. I continued spotting for another week. I also had slight cramps on my lower abdomen and smelly vaginal discharge. When I saw my doctor again at the end of the 7th week, she did a genital swab. I bought the pills she prescribed but the bleeding stopped so I didn't need to take them afterall.

The genital swab results at the end of the 8th week showed heavy growth of candida species (not albicans) which meant I was having a fungal infection. I was given treatment for that (Canesten) and it cleared after that.

It was a very anxious 3 weeks for us but luckily the pregnancy proceeded a bit more normally after that with my main grouse being my morning sickness.

"Vaginal bleeding occurs in about 30% of all pregnancies. Of these 30% of pregnant women about 50% will continue to go on and have a healthy baby. However, the remaining 50% (or 15% of all pregnancies) will experience a miscarriage. If the pregnancy continues, sometimes a physical cause for the vaginal bleeding is found. However in most cases, the cause remains unknown.

NOTE:Any vaginal bleeding during pregnancy should be communicated to your caregiver. "

Excerpt sourced from Article on Bleeding During Early Pregnancy by birth.com.au