Is This a Period or a Miscarriage?
QUESTION
Dear Midwife,
I am interesting in knowing if I am pregnant. About 3 weeks ago I had unprotected sex with my boyfriend, but he withdrew. Very soon after that I started having very unusually sore breasts (that lasted about 2 weeks). About a week ago I had a lot of discharge for about 2 days. Also, yesterday I was very sick, I woke up in the middle of the night feeling nausea and I didn't eat anything yesterday b/c I was sick, so every time I stood up I felt a wave of nausea and felt faint. I felt nausea all day yesterday, plus stomach cramps, headache and fever (I felt like I got food poisoning or something). I have been pregnant before and thought that I was definitely pregnant again, but it was too soon to take a test.
Then in the middle of the day I started bleeding, a little bit at first, and then it picked up to seem like a more normal period. I usually bleed really heavily on my period the first 2 days, and today I seem to be bleeding normally. I'm definitely not spotting or bleeding lightly. My breasts stopped being sore about the time I started bleeding, and the nausea and other symptoms have gone away. I also feel slight cramps. Am I having a normal period or could I be pregnant?
ANSWER
It sounds most to me like you are miscarrying VERY early. The way to tell is to get a pregnancy test right away. It might already be too late to document the pregnancy,though.
If you know that you are Rh negative and you did miscarry, you should get a Rhogam shot now and come back for a check-up in about 2 weeks. Which is a long way of saying that you should see your caregiver when you are not sure what is going on.
-- Cynthia, CNM
Cynthia Flynn
Cynthia Flynn, CNM. PhD, is the General Director of the Family Health and Birth Center which provides prenatal, birth, postnatal, gynecological and primary health care to underserved women and their families in Washington, D.C. Recently Cynthia served as Associate Professor of Nursing at Seattle University. There she not only taught, but remained in full scope clinical midwifery practice at Valley Medical Center where she cared for pregnant and birthing women, and practices well-woman gynecology, family planning, and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases.
Cynthia founded Columbia Women's Clinic and Birth Center, where she took care of pregnant women and infants up to two weeks of age and attended both birth center and hospital births. Before Cynthia earned her CNM, she worked as a registered nurse in labor and delivery and postpartum and is a certified Doula and Doula trainer.
