Blood in vomit in the second trimester

Repeated retching can irritate or tear tissue in the throat or lower food pipe, but ulcers, inflammation, swallowed blood, and other upper digestive sources are also possible. A maternity or urgent medical service should guide the next step.

The team will ask whether blood was bright red, streaked, clotted, or dark like coffee grounds. They will also consider how often vomiting occurs, whether you can drink, abdominal or chest pain, black stool, nosebleeds, swallowing symptoms, and medicines that may increase bleeding.

Vomiting blood can be a presentation of stomach cancer or oesophageal cancer, although numerous non-cancerous conditions can produce the same symptom. Finding the source may require examination, blood tests, or a specialist view of the upper digestive tract.

Call your maternity team or urgent care service and give your gestational week, the time of the episode, an estimate of the blood, and any recurrence. Mention fetal movement changes if you are already feeling movement, as well as vaginal bleeding, fluid loss, contractions, fever, reduced urination, dizziness, and medicines or supplements.

Avoid driving if light-headed. Have someone accompany you and bring your pregnancy notes and medicine list if they are easy to reach. Do not delay departure to photograph or collect the vomit, though an existing photograph may help describe it.

Call emergency services for continued or heavy vomiting of blood, fainting, confusion, severe weakness, breathing difficulty, pale clammy skin, intense chest or abdominal pain, or black tar-like stools. Seek urgent maternity help for heavy vaginal bleeding, fluid loss, regular painful tightening, or a marked change in fetal movement once a usual pattern has developed.

Inability to keep fluids down, very little urine, or worsening dizziness also needs rapid advice because ongoing vomiting can affect hydration as well as reveal a bleeding problem.

Ask how they will locate the bleeding, whether dehydration or anaemia is present, and how any proposed test is adapted for pregnancy. Confirm which anti-sickness and pain medicines you may use, what you should drink or eat after assessment, and exactly when to return.