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Miscarriage or Still Pregnant?

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Is it possible to believe you have miscarried and still be pregnant? Well, yes, especially if you are twenty-five year old Leanne Wright of Greater Manchester, UK.

She claims she presented at the Royal Bolton Hospital at six weeks pregnant with symptoms of miscarriage and was sent home and told to take ‘labour-inducing pills'.

Two weeks later she was devastated to find she hadn't miscarried and was still pregnant, with the baby due in February.

Now there is a part of this story that I can't relate to in any shape or form and that is the bit where she is devastated to find out she's still pregnant. When I had my three miscarriages I think I'd have personally handed over the keys to my home and my car if it meant I could have heard the words, ‘Sorry but you're still pregnant.'

How may of us have the reverse happen, the thinking you're pregnant, having all the symptoms then having a scan which reveals you haven't technically been pregnant for several weeks and all that's there is a sac containing either a dead under formed foetus or nothing at all?

And how many of us would have killed to be in Leanne's shoes at that point? Excuse me while I hastily obtain a dangerous weapon.

Regardless of what Leanne may or may not have been feeling, the question begging to be asked is, how did this happen? How on earth could a hospital get it wrong, resulting in a woman being convinced she was miscarrying when she wasn't?

The hospital has simply said that ‘all pregnancies are not straightforward' and I got taste of this when I was miscarrying for the second time and blubbering in my doctor's surgery. I'd used up all of my doctor's tissues and was halfway up my second sleeve when she interrupted me to say that, despite the fact that I was bleeding substantially enough to be using maternity pads and had cramps I may in fact not lose the baby.

Slowly I ceased snivelling as she went on to say that when she was pregnant with her second child she thought she was having her worst period ever - bleeding, crippling pain and clots - and she was not only pregnant but went on to have a healthy child.

Yet as a precaution she sent me for a scan, which rapidly killed my new false hope when it showed that I had indeed miscarried. I have to wonder if the Bolton Hospital had actually done a scan or, busy with Friday night drunks, had simply sent her away without properly examining her. We don't know.

There is no doubt that many women bleed both regularly and even substantially during pregnancy but don't miscarry however they are not the majority. Whilst it is important to try and stay positive unfortunately you have to be realistic.

For every Leanne, angry about being pregnant when she thought she wasn't, there are thirty women like me, sobbing because they aren't pregnant when they thought they were.

If there is one constant, it is that neither pregnancies or miscarriages are straightforward, of that you can be certain.

Jodi Panayotov