Miscarriage: Causes, Symptoms and Ways to Cope

Pregnancy is a miraculous state and process. But sometimes the body decides to get rid of the new life and miscarriage takes place. Usually, it happens at the beginning of pregnancy – during the first twelve weeks, to be exact.

Statistics indicate that every fifth woman loses the fetus without even knowing that she was pregnant. From the point of view of gynecology, a miscarriage is a spontaneous abortion (of the embryo younger than 22 weeks), because modern medicine can save the children who are born prematurely after the 22nd week and with 500 gr weight. But if the fetus weighs less – there is no chance at all.

How Does a Miscarriage Happen?

As it was stated above, in many cases the woman doesn’t even know that she is pregnant and nothing disturbs her life. She awaits her periods, indicates that they’re late, and in a few days they appear but they are painful and heavier.

Sometimes the miscarriage is accompanied by mild pain in the bottom of the belly and heavy bleeding, and the woman won’t even go to the doctor if the bleeding stops. But if it continues for a few days (as heavy as at the beginning) the woman won’t avoid the visit to the specialist.

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In some cases, periods like this are very painful and one of the days the blood clot leaves the body. That is when we can say that this is a miscarriage. Usually, this clot looks like a blasted bubble with blood. And it usually scares everyone who sees it for the first time. When the blood clot is gone you should immediately visit your doctor. First of all, to get through an examination and to establish what it was. Second of all, to see if the cleaning is needed.

Miscarriage makes your body and mind suffer. Many people know about miscarriage as a fact, but not everybody knows its reasons and preventive methods.

As for the early miscarriage (up to the 12th week) – it is an ordeal and kind of a warning for parents. It means that either the body of the mother is not ready to handle another body inside of it or both parents need to strengthen their health, to make the child born sound and healthy.

Early Miscarriage Causes

Genetic Embryo Disorder

During the first weeks of pregnancy, all the attention goes to the proper development of all the future human’s body parts – and for that, both parents’ equal 23 chromosomes are needed. If only one of them contains a mutable element – it is recognized as unable to function and miscarriage happens. Ecology, viruses, and occupational hazard influence this first factor. They are very difficult to avoid, but you can lower the risk by taking a vacation: go to the sea, breathe fresh air. Miscarriage is a natural selection.

Hormonal Disruptions

T is well-known that the hormones are responsible for the proper woman’s body functioning, and their misbalance can trigger miscarriage. Also, the lack of progesterone or an excess of the male hormone can be the reasons. If the woman is diagnosed with this problem in advance she undergoes hormonal therapy to avoid spontaneous abortion.

Rhesus Incompatibility

You have to take blood tests to learn your blood type. Both of you, mother and father (if the future mother has Rhesus negative). In this case, it is the father’s blood that plays an important role, because if his result is contrary, it can lead to the Rhesus incompatibility – when the embryo inherits father’s Rhesus positive while the mother’s body identifies those issues as an alien body and triggers a miscarriage, saving itself. If the father also has Rhesus negative – there won’t be any problems. If the pathology was diagnosed, the hormone progesterone is applied, functioning as a protection for the embryo and preventing pregnancy loss.

Infections

Infection is bad. If you are aware of the STIs of you or your partner, they must be treated before the pregnancy. Otherwise, the embryo will be infected and the body will save itself.

Infectious and inflammatory diseases of inner organs

If the body temperature rises due to the inner organ disease it can trigger a miscarriage. Usually, the temperature is accompanied by the whole body intoxication, making it unable to take care of the embryo. That is why it is super important to have a complete examination when planning to get pregnant, in order to discover and treat all chronic diseases and to get vaccinated if necessary.

Abortions

As we all know, it is interference with the woman’s body. If several abortions took place the miscarriage can become “habitual” for the body or even lead to infertility.

Medications

It is advised to avoid taking any medication during the first trimester because it can affect the development of the embryo. There are also some herbs that can do you harm during the first weeks of pregnancy: parsley, cornflower, and St. John’s wort.

Bad mood

Or stress, grieve, and continuous psychic tension, to be exact, can alter the birth of a new life. In this case, some sedatives can be prescribed by the doctor.

Lifestyle

Change your habits when you’re only planning to have a baby. Avoid bad habits, start a well-balanced diet and your future child will develop easily and properly.

Physical influence

Usually, if you fall or try to carry something heavy can trigger a pregnancy loss only if one of the reasons above takes place. If the mother is completely healthy this impact should be very serious to cause the miscarriage.

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First-Trimester Miscarriage Symptoms

  • The most common symptoms are a pain in the lower belly and bleeding. The pain can pass to the lower back. This pain is recurrent.
  • Vaginal discharges signal about the miscarriage threat. If the secretions are red or even brown – visit your doctor to avoid pregnancy loss. When the discharges are not intense there is a chance to save the pregnancy. If there is bleeding with tissue clots – it means that the miscarriage has already happened.
  • Very often uterus activity is named as another symptom, but only when it is accompanied by discomfort and painful sensations. Otherwise, reduce your physical activity and stress situations.

In some cases even with the aforementioned symptoms the pregnancy continuous normally but under the close doctor’s observation. The symptoms of the miscarriage are pretty similar for every trimester. The only difference is in the pain level and vaginal secretions.

Second-Trimester Miscarriage Symptoms

  • The liquids that drop from the vagina signal the damage of the amniotic fluid bag. Contact your doctor immediately.
  • Vaginal bleeding is a sign of a miscarriage during any trimester.
  • Painful urinating with blood clots.
  • Internal bleeding that can be prompted with severe pain in the stomach or even shoulder.

How is Miscarriage Diagnosed?

If your pregnancy is planned, and you went through all the necessary procedures the doctor told you about, took all the tests, and treated all the illnesses – the risk of having a miscarriage is lowered to a minimum. If there were some contradictions discovered they are being taken care of when the baby is conceived. Here the chances of spontaneous abortion are prevented beforehand.

If the pregnancy is unplanned, without any preliminary diagnostics and treatment, the risk of spontaneous abortion is evaluated during the planned visit to your gynecologist. When the specialist examines the woman with delayed periods, he or she establishes a supposed pregnancy stage.

Then, according to this stage, the doctor:

• Correlates the uterus size with the stage of pregnancy
• Checks the uterus activity
• Checks if the neck of the womb is closed
• Pays attention to the vaginal discharges (whether they contain blood or not)

The most reliable way to diagnose the miscarriage or premature birth during late pregnancy is to make a transvaginal ultrasonic scanning, that is being conducted by an experienced professional.

First-Trimester Miscarriage Treatment

The first thing that your doctor advises when there is a risk of miscarriage during any trimester is confinement to bed. In some cases to save the pregnancy, the woman is prohibited from getting up at all, because the physical activity should be reduced to the minimum.

Also, it is recommended to lower the level of worries, stress, and bad thoughts. From the first moments of its development, the new life inside of you feels everything that affects your body. And stress and anxiety can harm the embryo, causing its rejection by the organism. To avoid stress, you may be prescribed valerian and motherwort.

You can relax at home: take a comfortable position in your armchair or somewhere else and try to think of something good. Focus on the happy thoughts about your future child, how will you name it; imagine how will it look like. But anyway the consultation with your doctor comes first.

If the risk of spontaneous abortion is high, your doctor will try to establish the reason and prescribe hormonal meds that are designed to ensure proper pregnancy behavior.

The specialist may need to conduct an intrauterine ultrasonic scanning. If there are small problems discovered, the stitches are put on the neck of the womb to keep the fetal egg inside the womb. This surgery is performed under anesthetics.

Early Miscarriage Consequences

Medicine claims that the cases of serious consequences after the early pregnancy loss are very rare. The problem may arise if the spontaneous abortion was triggered on purpose with meds, herbs or if there are parts of the embryo left in the womb (which happens more often with late miscarriages).

In order to prevent that gynecologists clean the womb after the unfortunate event. The woman will have to undergo an ultrasound examination.

But if you won’t visit your doctor immediately, heavy uterine bleeding may happen, leading to the fatal outcome or blood poisoning.

How to Prevent Miscarriage

The misbirth can be avoided. The rules are very simple. Go through every test and examination you can to see if there are any possible lapses from the normal state. Treat all the inflectional and hormonal diseases that can trigger a spontaneous abortion.

As it was stated above, change your habits, lead a healthy lifestyle. Avoid abortions.

Miss Courage

Many people think that one miscarriage means that there will be more of them. But that is a myth. It happens only if the cause of the first case wasn’t established or treated completely and properly.
And even if your periods are heavier or more painful than usual – go to the doctor. The only true answer to the question “what to do when a miscarriage happens?” will be “visit your doctor or even call an ambulance”.