A miscarriage, complete or otherwise, is an emotional circumstance. Your loved one may feel deep loss and sadness as well as anger and guilt. The best thing you can do is to listen to her. Allow her to open up to you if she feels comfortable. It is difficult to face the loss of a pregnancy alone, so make her know that you are there to support her.
Miscarriage
Roughly 15% of all recognized pregnancies end in miscarriage. Most miscarriages occur early into the pregnancy and are triggered by chromosomal abnormalities in the embryo. If you have had multiple miscarriages, blood-clotting issues, hormone imbalances, and immune responses could be factors in the terminations of embryos. Age also plays a large role. As you age, the risk factor of early miscarriage goes up as well.
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Sigma Nursing answeredIf your doctor believes a miscarriage is to be expected, then you have a few treatment options. You can allow the miscarriage to occur as it naturally would, though it may not happen for a few weeks, and it may mean that you experience bleeding while the process takes place. And since all the pregnancy related tissues leave the body, there shouldn't be any need for medical treatment to remove it.
If waiting is unsettling for you, you might decide to take medication to prompt labor and, thus, the miscarriage, or have a surgical procedure, such as a suction dilation and curettage, performed to remove the tissues from the uterus.
If you experience any signs of complication, excessive pain and bleeding, fever, chills, racing heart rate or low blood pressure consult your physician.
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Reston Hospital Center answeredSee All 6 AnswersA miscarriage, on its own, should not affect a woman's ability to conceive again. Since most miscarriages are due to fetal abnormalities, the miscarriage shouldn't affect any anatomical structures or biological processes. Yet, if you have had several miscarriages, you may want to have a doctor investigate the cause. You could, in fact, have a uterine or cervical condition that is affecting your ability to sustain a pregnancy. There may be treatments available for such conditions that could help you have a healthy pregnancy. There could also be genetic factors from one or both of the parents that could be causing repeated miscarriage. -
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Reston Hospital Center answeredSee All 3 Answers
It may be unclear whether or not a miscarriage is about to happen. That's because one of the symptoms, bleeding, can be a sign of a less-serious complication. Typically, though, a miscarriage may be signaled by vaginal bleeding, abdominal cramps, lower-back pain, and the discharge of tissue. If it is very early in the first trimester, a miscarriage may appear as minor bleeding. If it is later on, though, the bleeding may contain clots and the cramping will be quite obvious as the body loses the pregnancy. A miscarriage is believed to be "complete," if all pregnancy related tissues have left the uterus.
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Dr. Anthony L. Komaroff, MD , Internal Medicine, answeredSee All 2 AnswersA miscarriage is the loss of a pregnancy before 20 weeks.
Miscarriage happens in 10% to 20% of all pregnancies. This means the risk of having two miscarriages in a row, just by chance alone, is 2% to 3%.
Doctors interpret this number differently when they define the condition known as "recurrent pregnancy loss." Some diagnose it after two miscarriages, others after three.
There are many potential causes of recurrent pregnancy loss. And there are many tests to evaluate the condition. It is reasonable to do some less invasive testing after two losses and a complete evaluation after three.
No cause of recurrent miscarriage is found in about half of affected couples. Recognized causes include:- abnormalities in the shape of the uterus
- genetic factors
- hormone deficiencies
- infections
- immune factors
- a careful review of all prior pregnancies
- a complete pelvic examination
- a variety of blood tests
After two miscarriages in a row, the chance for a third is about 25%. The risk in a particular woman is influenced by several factors. These include:- the age of the mother (the risk goes up with age)
- the cause of miscarriage
- the time in the pregnancy when the loss occurs (the risk goes up if a miscarriage happens later in pregnancy)
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Reston Hospital Center answeredSee All 3 AnswersIt is possible to get pregnant within the next menstrual cycle following a miscarriage. This may be too soon for women to fully recover from the effects of the miscarriage. Therefore, doctors often recommend waiting a little while (one month or so) before trying to get pregnant again.
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Dr. Michael Roizen, MD , Internal Medicine, answeredSee All 6 AnswersA miscarriage essentially occurs when there's a hemorrhage in a layer of tissue in the uterus. The bleeding causes a breakdown of tissues next to the ovum, and that stimulates uterine contractions-contractions that result in the fertilized egg detaching from the uterine lining and thus being expelled by the mother. Sometimes, women aren't even aware the whole pregnancy/miscarriage even occurred. -
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Dr. Michael Roizen, MD , Internal Medicine, answeredSee All 4 AnswersIn the vast majority of cases, there's absolutely nothing you can do to prevent a miscarriage. What you can do is take certain steps to optimize your fertility and to provide the best possible environment for your fetus after you have conceived.
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See All 2 AnswersSpotting during pregnancy is always scary for a woman, says OBGYN Monica Diaz, MD, of Medical City Dallas Hospital. In this video, she explains what women should do if they have spotting or think they're having a miscarriage.
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Dr. Kevin W. Windom, MD , OBGYN (Obstetrics & Gynecology), answeredSee All 2 Answers15% of all women who have a positive urine pregnancy test will miscarry. I counsel my patients that once a heartbeat is seen on ultrasound that the miscarriage rates drop to 5%. Once a woman gets out of the first trimester, the miscarriage rates drop to 1%.