Honest abortion story

By anonymous on 08/07/2014
I had my third baby in November 2013 and found out I was pregnant in April this year. It was a shock because we'd taken precautions, but we knew straight away we didn't want to continue with the pregnancy. We couldn't afford it. We live in a two bedroomed house with three children already and the last baby was meant to be our final one. I was also due back to work in June too and it just wasn't right for us. I rang the doctors the day afterwards for an appointment, I went to see him and he immediately put in a hospital referral. This was on a Thursday. The following Tuesday the doctors rang and told me I had an appointment at the hospital for that Thursday. I was so nervous, my friend came along for support and we were so surprised to see all sorts of people of all ages, races, married, single. It made me feel less guilty in a way weirdly. I had a scan and they weren't able to see much so they did an internal one. It was uncomfortable but the doctor was very nice. She said she believed the baby hasn't formed properly as there was no heartbeat and by now there should have been apparently. So she gave me the options of coming back the following week for another scan and again if it was confirmed there was no heartbeat then they'd sent me to the miscarriage unit. But I felt it wouldn't have changed my decision anyway so declined and asked to go ahead with the abortion. Plus I didn't want to go to the miscarriage unit to be there with parents devastated over the loss of their babies and all along I wanted an abortion anyway I felt like I was duping people. I had some blood tests done and saw a nurse. The whole thing was about 4 hours long, a lot of it was waiting around. The nurse was very nice, she was understanding and didn't judge at all, which I was worried they'd do. I was embarrassed that this had happened but she put me at ease. There were no appointments left for the following Monday so she booked me in for the week after. I was so early in my pregnancy that I had no choice but to have the medical abortion. I was told to go there on the Monday where I'd take a tablet then come back on the Tuesday. I went on the Monday with my partner took a tablet was told to wait in the waiting room for half an hour and if I hadn't been sick I could just leave. I wasn't sick so I left. I had no pains or bleeding that day or night. I arrived on the Tuesday at 7:30am and had four tablets inserted into my vagina. It wasn't painful, obviously slightly uncomfortable but nothing else. And was shown to a curtained off bay with a reclining chair where I was told to sit for an hour. There were five of us in total in the bay. After the hour was up we were told to go have a little walk as gravity helps. So we went to the shop in the hospital and had a walk around. I wasn't allowed to go for a wee for two hours after the tablets were inserted. So we walked around came back had a sit down and then when I was able to go for a wee I went for one. We had to use cardboard pots to wee into. I had a wee and nothing happened but I felt the need to push a little bit so I did and I felt something slide out, it wasn't painful or uncomfortable. I looked in the pot and it was clots and some blood and part of what looked like the pregnancy. I rang the buzzer and they took it straight away. I went for another walk, an hour later I tried to go to the toilet again I gave a gentle push and again more came out. I looked and it was the rest of the pregnancy. It didn't look like a baby it was just a white sac with blood. The nurse came and told me I'd passed the pregnancy. And now I had to wait two hours in case I bled heavily which I didn't. That was it over and done with. I was so so scared as well because I'd heard horror stories, read things that frightened me and the nurse herself said it can be very very painful. But it wasn't at all. I don't know whether that was because the baby may have already passed away inside of me or the fact I was so early into my pregnancy but I didn't feel much pain at all. I had backache, slight cramping and aching at the top of my legs, as you would with a period pain. The four girls who were there with me didn't seem in a lot of pain either, not one of them had pain relief. And four of us had passed our pregnancies by 11 am. There was only one girl who had to have another dosage of tablets inserted as she wasn't progressing. It's now 2 weeks today since it happened and the bleeding has stopped and I'm back to normal. I wanted to tell my story because I was absolutely petrified and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Editor's Comment

Thanks for posting your experience of an early medical abortion. If you need any support after your abortion please call the national helpline 0300 4000 999, or log into Online advisor.for post abortion support.

Other stories...

Story categories

Tell your story

The information submitted in the stories section is generated solely by the public.

Would you like to tell other people about your experiences?