MISCARRIAGE: Any factor that causes a loss of the developing baby is called as miscarriage or spontaneous abortion. In most of the cases, around 85% of miscarriages happen before the 20th week i.e. within first 3 months of pregnancy. This is one of the most common early pregnancy complications. After the 20th week, chances of a miscarriage is very less but if it happens then it is called as late miscarriage. Many women miscarry before even knowing that they are pregnant.
The miscarriage word is very horrible for expecting women, that’s why they don’t even want to listen about this word. But on the practical terms, one should also have knowledge about this phase as well. If a miscarriage is to be treated on time, it would also reduce further complications. Let’s just get to know about this pregnancy miscarriage in a better way by reading this article till the end.
SYMPTOMS:
The symptoms of miscarriage may vary from person to person and depends on which stage of pregnancy miscarriage happens. But some of the most common symptoms of miscarriage are:
– Heavy bleeding or spotting
– severe abdominal cramps
– Weakness
– Weight loss
– fluid/tissue discharge from vagina
– mild to severe back pain
– very less signs of pregnancy
– contractions
If you experience any of these symptoms, immediately call your doctor. Only your doctor will let you confirm after proper check-up, sometimes it may be due to some other complications.
CAUSES:
There are many reasons due to which a miscarriage can happen. Some of the main causes of miscarriage are as follows:
Chromosome Issue: In some cases, the fetus gets wrong number of genes/chromosomes which led to abnormalities in your fetus, called as chromosome issue. This is one of the main cause of miscarriage in early pregnancy.
Placenta Issue: Abnormal or problem with the placenta (organ, which provides oxygen and nutrients from your body to your baby) can also cause miscarriage.
PCOS: Polycystic ovary syndrome is a condition with hormonal imbalance that causes very large ovaries. This problem can increase your risk of diabetes, obesity, infertility, and miscarriage.
Health/lifestyle Habits: Sometimes untreated health conditions like thyroid, diabetes, HIV, and very high blood pressure can also cause miscarriage. And women with bad lifestyle habits like drinking, smoking, drugs, overweight, underweight are also at more risk of miscarriage.
Other Problems: Sometimes abnormal uterus and weak cervix can also be the reason for miscarriage.
TYPES OF MISCARRIAGES :
There are various types of miscarriages, which are as follows:
Complete Miscarriage: In complete miscarriage, all the pregnancy tissues are expelled out of your body. In this case, you experience pain, cramps, and heavy bleeding for several days. If you have a complete miscarriage then no further medical treatment is needed. Get it checked by your doctor.
Incomplete Miscarriage: When some of the pregnancy tissues leave your body but some remain in the cervix is known as an incomplete miscarriage. All the symptoms are same just like complete miscarriage i.e. heavy bleeding, pain, and cramps. But this kind of miscarriage needs further medical treatment. Your doctor will guide you for further procedure in this case.
Missed Miscarriage: When the embryo dies but tissues stay in the uterus, that is known as a missed miscarriage. In this you may not experience any miscarriage symptoms. Only a doctor can diagnose and can confirm this complication and let you know about further treatment.
Threatened Miscarriage: When you have the symptom of miscarriage like vaginal bleeding, cramps, and pain for several days but your cervix is still closed, that is known as a threatened miscarriage. In this case, you may still experience a healthy pregnancy without any problem. By proper examination, your doctor will confirm about your situation.
Inevitable Miscarriage: In this type of miscarriage, you experience symptoms of heavy bleeding, severe pain, strong cramps, and your cervix is open. This shows your body is ready to terminate this pregnancy i.e. pregnancy tissues will come out from your cervix but you can’t do anything to stop this miscarriage.
Chemical Miscarriage: When the loss of the fetus is very early i.e. between 4th or 5th week, that is called as chemical miscarriage. This type of miscarriage occurs even before knowing that you are pregnant and therefore unaware about this miscarriage.
Recurrent Miscarriage(RM): When you experience 3 or more miscarriages back-to-back, that is known as recurrent miscarriage. This is a very rare type of miscarriage and can affect only few women i.e. around 1-2%. For this you need to consult with a specialist so that you can diagnose the root cause of this problem.
TREATMENT:
Before heading towards treatment, first of all your doctor needs to diagnose what kind of miscarriage you’ve had. For this your doctor can do an ultrasound, blood test, x-ray of the uterus and pelvic examination to know the type of miscarriage. Now comes the turn of treatment which is based upon the type of miscarriage.
– If you have a complete miscarriage i.e. no pregnancy tissues are present in your body, then no treatment is required.
– But if some or all pregnancy tissues are present in your body, then there are various options –
> wait for sometime so that your body expels out all the remaining pregnancy tissues naturally, called as “expectant management”
> force these tissues to come out from your body through medication, called as “medical management”
> remove the remaining tissues through surgery, called as “surgical management”
PREVENTION:
In some cases, you don’t even know about miscarriage while in others you can’t do anything to prevent miscarriage. But in some cases following are some of the things which you should follow to reduce the risk of miscarriage:
– If you have any chronic disease, make sure to treat it before pregnancy.
– Do not drink, smoke, and use drugs during pregnancy.
– Eat a well-balanced and nutritious diet.
– Do exercise regularly to maintain good health.
– Avoid too much of caffeine.
– Maintain good hygiene to avoid any infection.
– Reduce your stress and try to stay relaxed and happy during pregnancy.
After a miscarriage, before heading towards further pregnancy planning, you need to give yourself some time to recover physically as well as emotionally. Apart from that, talk to your doctor about that. We can’t stop the unexpected mis-happenings but we can do that is in our hand. Try to maintain a healthy lifestyle which is the foundation of a healthy pregnancy.