She's 24 Weeks and Started Bleeding
QUESTION
Dear Midwife,
My Fiancé is 24 weeks pregnant. She woke up at 3am this morning with some cramps and she started bleeding, light pink, not dark. It stopped in about a hour or so and her cramps went away.
We called her doctor, but with it being Sunday, she is not in, so we left a message.
Is this something to be very concerned about?
As a father to be I’m worried about our little girl.
ANSWER
If it was only pink and stopped in an hour, chances are it was nothing serious, especially if you had intercourse in the prior 24 hours. As long as you see no bright red bleeding, things usually turn out to be ok.
But I am concerned that you could not reach your provider. OB providers should be available 24/7; you might have to wait a little if they are actually delivering a baby, but otherwise you should be able to reach him/her.
-- Cynthia, CNM. PhD.
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.
