Miscarriage

All You Need to Know About a Miscarriage

Testing positive for a pregnancy test is usually news welcomed with joy and gladness for most if not all women. Being pregnant is one of the most worthwhile experiences every woman yearns and looks forward to have. But sometimes, the dream of holding your own baby in your arms is cut short when the baby suddenly dies. No woman ever anticipates a miscarriage or wish it on their worst enemy. Miscarriages are physically and emotionally painful for any woman.

A miscarriage happens when a woman loses their baby before the 20^th week of her pregnancy. Many pregnancy losses are a result of miscarriages. Other reasons are still births and ectopic pregnancies. Miscarriages result from improper development of the fetus.

Causes of miscarriage

Miscarriages come about because of varying reasons and sometimes the reasons are not identified. In the first 3 months of pregnancy, a miscarriage happens because of a problem with the baby’s chromosome due to damage to an egg or sperm cell in the division process.

A miscarriage can also be caused by hormonal imbalances in the woman.

A lifestyle of smoking, drinking and generally any unhealthy lifestyle can lead to a miscarriage as well.

The age of the woman can also cause miscarriage especially for women who get pregnant in their late 40s or so.

A woman who experiences maternal trauma is also more likely to experience a miscarriage.

The risk factors of having a miscarriage

The age of the mother. The older the lady, the higher the risk of a miscarriage
A woman who has had a previous miscarriage has a slightly elevated risk of suffering from another miscarriage than someone who has not had a previous miscarriage.

Symptoms of a miscarriage

Miscarriages usually have warning signs that any expectant mother should be on the lookout for and seek medical attention once they experience the symptoms. These include:

Back pain: this back pain can be mild or severe but is often worse than the normal menstrual cramps
Weight loss while pregnant while you should be gaining weight
A white-pink mucus or discharge from the vagina
An experience of true and actual contractions which are very painful and happen every 5 to 20 minutes
Vaginal bleeding: this can be brown or bright red vaginal bleeding which may or may not be accompanied by cramps
A discharge of a tissue with a ‘clot-like’ material from the vagina
A sudden decrease in the pregnancy signs

Treatment of miscarriage

Treating a miscarriage has just one end goal in mind; to limit hemorrhaging or infection. If you experience a miscarriage in the early stages of pregnancy, your body will expel most of the fetal tissue and no medical procedure will be required.

Sometimes, the body may not expel all the fetal tissue and therefore a procedure known as the D &C procedure is performed to stop the internal bleeding and prevent infection. After the procedure, some drugs can be prescribed to help control the bleeding.