Dear Ladies,

I hope that you are ok.

I just thought I'd let you know that I had a very positive experience on Friday. I saw two midwives, one took loads of blood samples to send to the lab for testing. I had loads of blood taken after the birth but these results have not filetered back to my own hospital so they decideed to do their own in the meantime. It was my first time going out on my own but I felt like William took me there and got me back safely.

I think I have to have more done in 6 weeks and in the meantime they'll sort out an appointment with the consultant.

Once I'd had my bloods done a midwife who has trained in bereavement counselling came to see me. She was so lovely and easy to talk to. She thinks I had a placental abruption and says they will look after me very carefully next time.

I've asked to be tested for Hughes Syndrome and i think they've already done that. My other hospital were also testing for infections. At least I feel like we are on the road to finding out why this happeneed to me. The midwife said often once they identify the problem there is often a solution. She encouraged me to feel positive about my next pregnancy and I will try to do so. I must say I've googled placental abruption and it didn't make for very positive reading but I'm hoping that with good care from the hospital they can help me have a baby. I think it's best that I don't go 'googling' again and leave things to the professionals to diagnose me.

I had a terrible day yesterday and we cried a lot but today I feel a bit stronger. There have been some tears this morning but there will be every day for some time. Step by step my husband and I will climb this mountain together.

Take care and let me know how you are getting on.

Love Claire XXX

Hi claire, glad u found your midwife helpful. It really helps when you feel comfortable with the person who is helping you whether it be a midwife/dr or health visitor, believe me I have had a few 'bad' experiences with Dr's especially!

Sorry to ask but what is 'hughes sydrome'? I suffered a complete placental abruption at 38 weeks with Darcey( you probably new that having read the story. Sorry to hear you had a bad day yesterday it's not easy. We still have days like that now. They just get few and far between as time goes on... I wouldn't say it gets easier, I've found I've just 'adjusted' to living with the big 'whole' in my life. It's not nice and when I think that there is nothing to take my pain away it panics me because I know that for the rest of my life, no matter how many more children I have, how happy I am, I am always going to carry a deep sadness around with me. It's something I never imagined I would be dealing with. I immagine you will be the same.

We are now on our second month of ttc, don't think we've donne it this month as I feel sore so guessing period is on it's way. Never mind, we'll get there eventually. Then we will have a whole other issue-worry!... I have been told I will be very closely moniterd next time right from the start, extra appointments, fornightly scans etc. I have also been told I can stay at the hospital for any snout of time, should I feel to anxious, an offer which I will be taking up I think! So you to will be well looked after in future pregnancys hopefully..

Hope today has been a 'better' day for you both xxx

Hi CeilidhA,

After my first miscarriage my father in law heard something on the radio about women who'd had miscarriages being treated successfully with aspirin. I didn't follow this up at the time as I thought maybe I'd just been unlucky the first time as my first pregnancy ended at 9+4. I just hoped that everything would be ok, as statistically the odds are in your favour.

After we lost our son the hospital where it happened (which was not my 'home' hospital as it happened when we were away) told me i needed to get 'blood clotting' tests done. I hadn't asked why as I was in such deep shock but looked into it and found the Hughes Syndrome Foundation website and realised this was what my father in law had heard on the radio. I wrote down the details of the blood tests that need to be done to test for this and went to my GP but he knew nothing about it, hence my visit to the hospital to see the midwives. The midwives did not know it by name but i'm sure these two blood tests were included in the blood tests they took on friday.

This is a quote from the website:

"One miscarriage is a disaster. Two is worse. Imagine the suffering of women who have 3, 5, 7 or even 12 pregnancy losses, and sometimes as late as the last few weeks of their pregnancy.

We now know that Hughes Syndrome is the most common treatable cause of recurrent miscarriage: depending on which study you quote, the figure is up to 1 in 5. Furthermore, late pregnancy loss, fortunately an unusual problem in pregnancy, is very strongly associated with Hughes Syndrome as is pre-eclampsia, placental abruption and intra-uterine growth restriction.

For the sake of a simple blood test, patients with miscarriage or late pregnancy loss can be tested for Hughes Syndrome. Treatment of these patients has proved one of the true successes of modern medicine, the successful pregnancy rate rising from a previous low of fewer than 20% to figures now in the region of 75-80% success rate. Treatment is with low-dose aspirin and/or heparin."

I'm not sure how long it'll be before i hear from the Consultant. My guess is that they'll go through the blood test results and the post mortem report together. I just hope that he is nice and helpful and takes time to explain things. i know i'll need to write down questions to ask but I've not thought of anything yet.

Not sure if you are under the care of a Consultant at the moment or with your G.P. Either of these should be able to arrange the blood tests for you, although they might have already done them as they seem to be part of a set of clotting tests as far as i can see. If your results were negative they might not have mentioned it so it's worth asking them. I'm sure my GP would have organised the tests if I'd pushed but we knew I was going to see the Consultant so he didn't fix it up. To be honest he was a bit embarrassed that I'd come equipped with more knowledge than he had.

I'm not sure if Hughes Syndrome is my problem but there is clearly a link between this and miscarriages and I want to raise awareness. i'm on a bit of a mission and have posted threads on TTC after Miscarriage and Miscarriage Support about Hughes Syndrome. I feel that if I can encourage other ladies to demand this test William's short time with us was not in vain. If I can prevent just one woman from going through what we've been through it'll be worth it.

I want a baby ASAP but I don't want to get pregnant before I get my blood results back, which could be a couple of months if they do more in 6 weeks. I imagine after all I've been through it'll take a while before my cycles return to normal anyway and I want my body to heal.

I'm glad to hear you are now TTC. Good luck!

There is a link here for you about Hughes Syndrome. You might want to print some info off to take to the GP in case he does not know anything about it:

http://www.hughes-syndrome.org/symptoms.htm#pregnancy

It's very helpful to be able to communicate with people who have had similar experiences to me. I hope we can all move on to happier times.

Hi Claire.

I will definatley mention it to my consultant. We are going to a 'pre-pregnancy' meeting with him on the 27th of this month. So hopefully he will know whether or not I was tested and where to go from there.

Thanks for bringing it to my attention xx

Hi CeilidhA,
Glad to hear you have an appointment and it's not that far off.

I've heard nothing from my consultant yet but I'm going to start writing questions for him in a notebook as I find that when I go to see doctors my mind goes blank and I forget what I wanted to ask.

Take care,

Claire