What should I do if I'm bleeding during pregnancy?

If you experience vaginal bleeding during your pregnancy you should contact your local doctor (GP), midwife or obstetrician (if you have booked with one). Otherwise contact your local hospital or the maternity hospital where you intend to have your baby. Depending on the amount of bleeding you are experiencing, your caregiver may:

	Advise you to wait and see, particularly if the bleeding is light or only small amounts of spotting in the early weeks.
	Ask you to come and see them for a physical check up. This may entail them using a speculum to look at the cervix and see if it is open (indicating a miscarriage is inevitable) or checking for a vaginal infection or polyps. They may also do an internal vaginal examination with their gloved fingers.
	Organise an ultrasound test during the next few days (if the bleeding is light) or as soon as possible if the bleeding is heavy. This will check to see if the baby's heartbeat is present (although the baby's heart beat is not able to be detected by an ultrasound until about 7 to 8 weeks of pregnancy and the baby is usually too small to be seen if you are less than 6 weeks pregnant). If the pregnancy is advanced enough, the ultrasound can measure the size of the baby to see if this correlates with your expected stage of pregnancy.
	Advise you to go to the hospital if the bleeding is very heavy. You will probably have an ultrasound in the hospital to see if your baby is OK and you may be asked to stay in hospital overnight if the bleeding isn't settling. If the baby has died, then your caregiver may recommend a D&C operation to slow the bleeding. If the bleeding settles they may take a wait and see approach. Sometimes heavy bleeding is caused by the miscarriage of one baby from a multiple pregnancy (for example a twin or triplet). If this is the case you will probably be admitted to hospital, given an ultrasound and observed until the bleeding settles. You can read more in miscarriage.

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