QuestionI am 16 weeks pregnant. 2 and a half weeks ago I had gushing bright red blood with no pain. I had an ultrasound and all looked healthy with the baby and the location of the bleed could not be detected. This bleeding stopped same day after 10 minutes. In the last 6 days I have had brown blood everyday, heavier at first then lightening up. It stopped yesterday and now is back. Not gushing but appears on wiping. My Dr did smear and it was negative to cervical cancer or infection. What could be causing this? Is it ok that the brown blood has not stopped or should I get checked out again?
AnswerDear Candice,
As long as the baby appears healthy on ultrasound, I would not be concerned. What I would suspect in this case is a subchorionic hematoma which caused the bright red bleeding before and now you simply have remnants of it with the brown discharge (old blood).
Put simply, a subchorionic hematoma is blood that collects between the layers of the forming placenta or between the placenta and the uterine wall. It is a common cause of 1st trimester bleeding. These may or may not cause a problem with a pregnancy. Most of them resolve themselves, bleed out through the cervical canal or reabsorb. Others, if they are very large, can threaten the pregnancy. It sounds like yours (if this was actually what caused your bleeding) was probably small, since nothing was noted on ultrasound, and bled out. The brown discharge you are having now is just some remaining blood that was left from before and is just now making its way out.
Now - this is simply my theory, based on what you have described to me and is just a possibility. But again, as long as your baby looks ok on ultrasound, I would not be concerned. If you want to have some reassurance, there's nothing wrong with asking them to listen for heart tones to make sure.
I hope this has helped you and answered your question. I wish you well.
Brenda
