Miscarriage or the loss of a pregnancy within the first 23 weeks is extremely common. As many as one in four pregnancies end in miscarriage; most occur in the first 12 weeks. For a couple hoping for a baby, it can be devastating.
The great majority of miscarriages are unexplained and the medical profession probably does not always do enough to find out why they happen. There is usually very little treatment possible once a miscarriage is underway. Most of them cannot be stopped once the bleeding has started to be anything other than slight. Some women let the womb naturally expel the ‘miscarriage’ and there is also a ‘medical management of miscarriage’ that uses tablets and vaginal pessaries to encourage the uterus to contract and expel the tissue inside the uterus. Your obstetrician may do an ultrasound scan to make sure that no tissue remains in the uterus. If it does, then he or she will recommend a hysteroscopy to remove it. This will be done under general anaesthetic, but only as a day case. Most women only need a day to recuperate before returning to work. There is a small risk that the procedure will perforate the uterus and also a small risk that not all the tissue will be removed. If you are in any pain or bleeding continues, call your doctor straight away.
Recurrent miscarriage is the term used if you have had three or more miscarriages in a row. This happens to around one in 100 women. If this happens to you, you will be referred to an obstetrician/gynaecologist (ask to see one with a specialism in recurrent miscarriage) who will try to determine the reason for this happening. Miscarriage can be the result of an abnormality, genetic problem, immunity problem, blood problem, hormone issue, your age, disease or injury, or it can just be a chance. Many women go on to have babies after several miscarriages.
There are many different ways for miscarriages to occur. Some women will experience pain slight or severe, others will have very heavy bleeding. In some cases, there are no symptoms at all, and it’s only discovered when the woman attends a routine ultrasound scan and no heartbeat can be found.
See your doctor immediately if you have bleeding or any of the following:
An ectopic pregnancy is one that develops outside the womb, mostly in one of the fallopian tubes. It can potentially be life threatening as the tubes cannot stretch enough for the embryo to grow and if left untreated the tube can burst. Emergency surgery is needed. Around one in 80 pregnancies is ectopic and once a woman has had one ectopic pregnancy she is much more likely to have another. If you’ve had an ectopic pregnancy, you can still have a normal pregnancy even if you have lost one fallopian tube. Around 66 percent of women who have had an ectopic pregnancy will become pregnant again naturally, others some may need treatment. What causes
Like miscarriage, doctors don’t always know why someone has an ectopic pregnancy, but risk factors include blocked or narrowed fallopian tubes. The risks are also higher for women over 35 or heavy smokers. But ectopic pregnancy can occur also in women with none of these risk factors.
The signs of an ectopic pregnancy usually start appearing by around week five. If you know you are pregnant and experience any of the following symptoms, call an ambulance or go straight to your local hospital accident and emergency department, as you need urgent medical attention:
4Louis is a UK charity that works across the country to support anyone affected by miscarriage, stillbirth and the death of a baby or child. To learn more about their work, please click here.
