Arm Yourself with Knowledge about Miscarriage and Spontaneous Abortion

What is miscarriage or spontaneous abortion? What causes miscarriage? How can I know if I am at risk to miscarriage? How to protect myself from miscarriage? What are some of the signs of miscarriage? Is it possible to stop a miscarriage if symptoms were caught early enough? What happens during a miscarriage? How Is a Miscarriage Diagnosed? What are the needed tests to stop another miscarriage? How to deal with physical and emotional pain? Can I Get Pregnant following a miscarriage? When can I try for another baby after a miscarriage?

Miscarriage is considered to be the worst thing that may happen to you, especially if it was your first time. Unfortunately, it is very common and hard to be predicted. It’s true that you never want to think about this topic but sure you need to arm yourself with knowledge.

What is a miscarriage or spontaneous abortion?

Miscarriage or spontaneous abortion, is the loss of a fetus before the first 20^th week of pregnancy. Most women miscarry before they know they’re pregnant. Some miscarry before they miss their period and some during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. It is often difficult to know about the real cause of a miscarriage, but it is good to understand some common causes.

related: How to Protect Yourself and Your Baby During your 1st Trimester Pregnancy?

What Causes Miscarriage?

It is true that there are several causes for a spontaneous abortion, but the causes are not due to a moderate exercise, sex, or a small daily cup of coffee.

Chromosomal or genetic abnormality in the embryo
Drug use
Smoking
Autoimmune response
Excess drinking
Intense exercise
Listeria or toxoplasma
Maternal trauma or accidents
Infections such as Lyme disease or Fifth disease
Exposure to radiation
Sever and frequent stress
Exposure to environmental toxins
Eating raw food
Holding heavy things
Sitting in a squatting position
Sexual Transmitted diseases such as rubella and HIV
Sever Retroverting and retroflexing uterus. (when uterus is pulled to the back of the body)

related: down SYNDROME (Trisomy 21)

How to know if you are at risk of miscarriage?

First thing you do when you get pregnant, is choosing a certain professional Doctor to follow with during your gestation period, and even after labor. Then you should make a schedule of appointments with the Doctor to check on you and your baby regularly. In case of realizing any weird symptom, you should immediately contact the doctor to protect yourself from any danger or poison that may lead to death.

You are at risk of miscarriage in case you were:

under the age of 18 or over 35
married to a man 45 of age and older
suffering from anemia
having problems with the pituitary gland
having hormonal or structural abnormalities in the uterus (such as low progesterone levels or uterine fibroids)
having Chronic illnesses such as uncontrolled diabetes, heart disease, lupus, or thyroid disease
overweight or underweight before conception
having hectic night shifts
having a week cervix

How to protect myself from miscarriage?

Usually a miscarriage occurs when an egg just didn’t develop correctly, or the baby would be born with physical or developmental disabilities. In this case no one can stop a miscarriage even certain drugs. On the other hand, a healthy pregnancy and baby can’t be affected by anything even a horse fall. But in all cases you should take some precautions, such as:

1- Take folic acid as prescribed by the doctor to avoid folic acid deficiency

2- Stay hydrated

3- Eat healthy

4- Don’t starve yourself even if you were suffering from nausea

5- Stop smoking and avoid sitting next to smokers

6- Stop alcohol

7- Don’t get exposed to radiations

8- Avoid stress as much as you can

9- Try to get rest as much as you can.

10-Sleep early

11- Exercise (pregnancy workout)

12- Know your caloric intake

What are some signs of early miscarriage?

Pay careful attention to your body signals. If you notice any of the following, talk with your doctor:

1-Spotting: It is true that spotting might be one of the earliest signs of pregnancy and not always indicates miscarriage, but you should never take it as normal.

2-Bleeding: There is a difference between having a simple few spots of blood on your underwear, which might be a sign of pregnancy, and dark heavy blood (sometimes black) more like a period, which might be a sign of miscarriage.

3- Sever Cramps: There is a difference between the mild and transitory cramps that are due to uterus expansion and the strong cramps or contraction that get stronger progressively due to miscarriage.

4-Back pain: There is also a difference between the back pain that is due to attachment of the baby to the uterine wall; and a consistent sever back pain, accompanied with bleeding, that is due to a loss.

5-Nausea, vomiting or fever: These symptoms might be due to infection caused by the fetus’ death

6-White-pink mucus: If you see on your underwear a white transparent mucus, then this is the water of amniotic sac that surrounds the fetus.

7-Passing tissue or clot-like material: If you see on your underwear blood with tissues and clot-like material, this can be the parts of the fetus.

8-Sharp or persistent pain: Such pain might be due to the uterus that is pushing other organs away to stretch for the baby; due to bladder infection that should be treated; or due to tubal pregnancy that is dangerous.

9-Not feeling pregnant: It is a bad sign if pregnancy symptoms disappear during the first trimester. First time pregnancy symptoms differ from the second and the other pregnancies. But when your pregnancy ends, you will stop feeling the pregnancy symptoms. You will feel a sudden or gradual changes in your body, because when the baby dies, the placenta stops producing the hormones that cause the familiar symptoms.

Is it possible to stop a miscarriage if symptoms were caught early enough?

The good news is that, yes we can prevent miscarriage at its early stages, if only the cervix is closed. But, sadly it is not that easy to stop a miscarriage from happening once it started. You have to be very cautious and follow certain steps:

You have to stay in bed with a complete rest, avoiding any effort (house work), until pregnancy symptoms stop and after the Doctor’s permission.
Never hold heavy things including babies
Avoid sudden and frequent movements
Avoid sexual intercourse during the dangerous period. And delay one week after miscarriage symptoms stop.

What happens during a miscarriage?

The physical process of failed pregnancy, can vary from woman to woman. You may start to bleed or feel cramps, this is because of the contractions to expel what is inside the uterus, including fetus, large blood clots and tissue. This is the normal process of a miscarriage. But in case miscarriage took place without symptoms and you weren’t able to know about your fetus’ demise, this might cause complications. In this case, your doctor can prescribe a drug to stimulate contractions.

In case, you continued bleeding without the passage of the tissue, it is recommended, under your doctor’s approval, to go for a surgical procedure to evacuate the uterus. This procedure called Dilation and Curettage. Dilation opens the cervix (in case it was closed) and Curettage suctions the leftovers from the uterus.

How Is a Miscarriage Diagnosed?

Your doctor can confirm miscarriage by performing:

1-Pelvic exam,

2- Ultrasound test

3-Blood test

What are the needed tests to stop another miscarriage?

The list of tests help you avoid the risk of another miscarriage, and they are:

Blood Test
Glucose screening
T3
T4
Thyroid Hormone Test
Toxoplasma Test
Antibody Titer IgM test
Rubella Test
Ultrasound to check cervix, and if there is a benign tumors in the uterus
Diagnosis of a retroverted uterus

How to deal with physical and emotional pain?

Physical pain is common after a miscarriage. Your doctor can prescribe medications to help relief the pain.

According to the emotional pain, you need support from your family and partner. You can also join a club or group of women who have the same issue to help you get over it. Give yourself sometime but don’t give up and never blame yourself.

Always Remember

In case you saw blood and checked with a doctor, who told you it is a miscarriage you should remove the baby, don’t do it unless you checked with another professional doctor who assured the case.
It is true that a benign tumor such as fibroid can cause miscarriage, but in case you detected the issue before miscarriage a medication can be taken to maintain pregnancy. Don’t worry the baby is stronger than the fibroid, he or she takes the nutrients instead. And this uterus fibroid gets out during labor.
Follicular cyst of ovary doesn’t cause miscarriage. Pregnancy goes normal with these functional cysts that disappear after labor.
Never blame yourself after a miscarriage
After miscarriage, it is vital to be seen by your doctor and treated to prevent hemorrhaging and/or infection.
Sometimes you have symptoms that seem pretty scary, and yet the pregnancy continues.
Nowadays miscarriage percentages are more than the past because women used to assume a sign of early miscarriage (bleeding) as late period.
Be aware of miscarriage but don’t panic. The state of panic and worry is not good for you baby.

Can I Get Pregnant Following a Miscarriage?

Yes. You can have a normal pregnancy after a miscarriage. Having a miscarriage does not necessarily mean you have a fertility problem but to be on the safe side it is good to read about fertility boosters. If you experienced two miscarriages in a row, you should stop trying to conceive. Use birth control to avoid unplanned pregnancy and contact your doctor to perform diagnostic tests to determine the main reason of such miscarriages.

When can I try for another baby after a spontaneous abortion?

Taking time to heal both physically and emotionally after a miscarriage is important. Your doctor may ask you to wait for 2-3 cycles before trying to conceive again. For several safety reasons such as to avoid ectopic pregnancy, placenta problems or another miscarriage. But this depends on your body, if your body is ready, you can start right away, as some did and had a successful and normal pregnancy, but if your body needs time to rebound, then you should wait. In all cases your experienced trustworthy midwife knows what is best for you. And when you want to try to conceive you should know when you ovulate. You can use homemade pregnancy tests to detect your pregnancy and gender predictor to detect your baby’s gender.

Conclusion

Pregnancy is a time when you lose control over your body, your weight gain and your civilized bladder schedule. And the absolute single most difficult aspect of pregnancy can be controlling the safety of your baby, especially from defects or death. What you can do, is arm yourself with knowledge, especially knowing how to deal with your pregnancy worries and complications. One of these complications you should know about is spontaneous abortion (miscarriage) that enables you to take an immediate action before any infection.

What about your experience with miscarriage?