doctor's visits first pregnancy (but had miscarriage)

[Anonymous]

Hi, I had a miscarriage last spring and just found out that I'm FINALLY pregnant again. I'm just four weeks.

But since I have had a miscarriage before I'm wondering what I should do/do differently this time. I think I'll go in for a quantitative blood pregnancy test much earlier. What else, should I ask to see a doctor for a checkup (last time it was a nurse practitioner at week 6). Can I do the sono earlier?

[Anonymous]

Congratulations!

I'm TTC after a miscarriage. My plan is to go in for bloodwork immediately to check HCG and progesterone levels, so that I can start the progesterone suppositories, if necessary. So I would recommend you do the bloodwork now. You can do a sono at 6 weeks. All the best to you and your little bean!

[Anonymous]

Just keep in mind, nothing you did caused miscarriage. Congrats.

[Anonymous]

I had a miscarriage a year ago, and got pregnant again this Fall. My doctor's office didn't have me do anything differently than any other patient. I did not go for my first appointment until I was 10 weeks, and had a sono at 11 weeks. I was pretty impatient to get everything rolling, but they said if something was going to happen early on, there's nothing they could do anyway. So here I am at 20 weeks now, and everything has been fine.

I would go ahead and get the doctor to verify the pregnancy with a blood test, so that they will prescribe your prenatal vitamins.

[Anonymous]

Most doctors will give you a prescription for prenatal vitamins even before you are pregant. If you are not already taking them, I would start as soon as possible and not even wait for the next appt. You and the baby will be fine even if you arent taking them immediately, but its better to start as soon as possible and often it can take some time to get an appt.

[Anonymous]

OP - much depends on the practice - some will not opt for earlier intervention or testing until a women miscarries 2 or 3 times. But it is worth the call to see if they will schedule you early for a blood test.

[Anonymous]

I was in the same situation, but waited it out until 8 weeks for the ultrasound. Unfortunately, at 6 weeks it is iffy whether you'll see the heartbeat, so doing it then could cause unnecessary worry and panic. My doc did do a second blood test 48 hours after the first, to make sure my hormones were rising appropriately.

[Anonymous]

I saw my doc sooner (I was barely pregnant), but it was really only because I was no longer a new patient--the "new patient" appointment took longer to schedule. With this one, they said, we can get you in tomorrow (this was just the front desk--without checking anything about my previous experience.) All that did was confirm the pregnancy with the blood test, which frankly didn't do anything in my mind other than make it "official." They scheduled the sono just as they would have before, ~8 weeks, as any sooner would likely not show a heartbeat and just make you worry.

The only thing that was different, I think, was when I called the advice nurse because I had a little cramping, they had me come in for a sono, "because of [my] history." I'd miscarried once. I was honestly just calling because my husband was worried, and to ask what I could take, and they freaked me out by having me come over for a sono that day. It turned out I had a cyst, very common, and the nice thing was, I saw the heartbeat a week earlier than my original sono was scheduled.

Keep in mind that miscarriage with a first pregnancy is very common, and most likely could not have been stopped with any kind of intervention. So there's no reason to do anything differently this time. Congratulations, and try to enjoy your pregnancy! I know I was on pins and needles for a while, and all turned out fine. I have a healthy 9-month-old boy.