Hemorrhage after previous birth

[3under3]

My youngest is currently 5 months, and when he was 2 weeks old I suffered a HUGE postpartum hemorrhage. It was so scary, one moment I was cradling him, the next I felt my pad fill and just felt gushing. I looked down and was drenched from waist to my ankles, like a horror movie. I panicked and threw the baby onto my partner thinking I was going to pass out with the baby in my arms.
In that terrifying 20 seconds, I literally believed I was going to die and leave my two babies with a mother.

I'm mentally scarred by the experience and so so scared of this happening again after the baby I'm currently carrying is born (if all continues fine with no hiccups of course).

Has anyone ever experienced one before and then experienced it again after their next baby??

Hope everyone is well and all those beans are digging deep xx

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[C0606]

Didn't want to read and run. Slightly different but I suffered hemmorage after giving birth and had the crash team come in who did actually save my life, without them I wouldn't be here and I'm extremely scared to go through childbirth again with the thought of it happening again.
I've read two lots of accounts to be honest. I've heard evidence that says after an initial hemmorage then you are more likely to experience it again. However another set of evidence suggests that it all depends entirely on why it happened in the first place to predict it happening again. So god knows!

 

[BunnyN]

That sounds really scary! I didn't have PPH like you but I did haemorrhage when I had a MC in October. I lost over 2 liters of blood and went into shock so can sympathise with you. Do they have an idea of why it happened? I think retained placenta is one of the more common causes. If that is what happened with you then maybe they could scan you after the birth to make sure you are all clear? I have read that a managed 3rd stage, ie an injection to speed up the delivery of the placenta reduces the risk of haemorrhage right after the birth but increases the chances of having a delayed haemorrhage so maybe that is something worth considering carefully.

After my experience I do have some concerns about this birth but its even worse for you because its going to be hard to relax in the first weeks when you should be enjoying your newborn.

 

[MrsT2011]

Hi Hun I had a haemorrhage after my first - I was still in hospital and in the bath getting ready to go home - was like a scene from Carrie!!!
Anyway I had my second baby at home (planned) but it was a very quick labour (under 45 mins) and I had a small haemorrhage straight after. Midwife was on her own as other one hadn't arrive so with my permission she got my placenta out quick (injection and some pushing on tummy and tug on the cord) and this stopped any additional bleeding.
Mi started taking spatone straight away and every day for 2 weeks and felt fine.

I was warned another pph was likely and they would probably have to transfer me after my home birth but I had a very experienced midwife who handled it like a pro!

 

[3under3]

Thank you ladies, very helpful!!

After the initial shock of what had happened, I was fine luckily by the time the ambulance crew turned up. I was told to remain on the toilet and not to flush- however most of the blood had poured down me rather than after I'd got to the loo. I was so embarrassed by it that I actually cleaned myself up and had thrown my soiled bottoms out of view so they never really grasped just how blood I lost so they didn't treat it as anything spectacular. A quick see over in the ambulance, checked stats etc and allowed me to stay home.

I saw my midwife the next day and she was clueless as to what caused it. She felt my belly (as she had done since day 1) and as always remarked on how quick it had returned to normal so there wasn't a chance of it being retained placenta.
She also ruled out infection etc.
She was completely gazumped but sympathised with me as she had suffered herself in her child baring days too.

Despite being told there was no retained placenta, a few days later I was at a farm with my toddler and newborn when I felt it was about to happen again. I rushed to the loo and half given birth to a rather big clot! I then went on to pass it fully which was atleast the size of my hand!

Then on a couple of occasions I continued to pass big clots, usually just as bleeding had calmed down.

I never experienced it at all with my first, no scary episodes, just straight forward postnatal bleed that finished after 3 weeks, no clots apart from a huge one a few hours after birth that was near enough the size of the baby I'd just pushed out lol

I was offered the injection to speed up placenta arrival straight after I gave birth, however as soon as they allowed me to attempt delivery of it myself it came straight out supposedly fully intact after examination xx

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[Tillyfloss]

I don't have experience with bleeding but I did have retained placenta,
I had bad stomach aches I had to have pain killers and a heat across me to help,
I passed the placenta which flew down the loo, it was pale purple / blue colour and about the size of my palm, I need antibiotics to help mand as soon as I passed it and tablets kicked in I felt so much better.

 

[BunnyN]

I had a similar experience to tinyfloss with retained placenta with my second. I had a lot of after pains, especially when feeding, then after a couple days I passed what looked like a big clot but I thought it had tissue in it so saved if for the MW to see. She confirmed it had a piece of placenta in it about the size of my thumb. She was a bit horrified and embarrassed because she had checked the placenta and didn't think anything was missing. Thankfully other than the pains it didn't cause me any trouble. The pains went straight away and I didn't need antibiotics because there was no sign of infection but the MW told me what to look out for.

 

[missyeovil]

I had a PPH with retained products 11 days after giving birth to my first. I had been telling midwives that I was still bleeding loads but I think they thought as it was a first baby I just didn't realise what was normal. I was then on the loo and started bleeding a lot and passed a massive membrane and ended up being rushed to hospital where the next day they did a D&C. The whole time the midwives had been saying how quick my uterus had gone down so nobody expected retained products! It was a really horrible experience and I was in a kinda shock for weeks after it!

With my second I asked for a home birth (I live on an island with no resident midwives or major hospital so that's a pretty big thing here!) and they agreed straight away! Said although there was possibly a small risk it would happen again it wasn't big enough to justify me being high risk or anything. I planned for a home birth quite happily, then around 35 weeks I started getting nightmares about dying of a PPH and it was bloody terrifying. Got through it using hypnobirthing CD and went on to have my little boy at home - the only problem being my cervix clamped shut whilst the placenta was delivering!! The midwives knowing my history were just super careful and eased it out and triple checked for signs of damage or anything being retained.

Xx