Miscarriage can be an upsetting and life-altering experience. Sometimes there are no symptoms, and only discovered through routine prenatal appointments.
Doctors may prescribe misoprostol to accelerate the natural miscarriage process and help eject any remaining pregnancy tissue from your uterus more quickly. Misoprostol will induce contractions, forcing contractions out, which will then help eject it altogether.
Causes
Missed miscarriage occurs when fertilized egg implants in the uterus but doesn’t proceed further with pregnancy, otherwise known as failed or incomplete pregnancies, blighted ovum pregnancies, anembryonic pregnancies or anembryonic gestations. It usually happens during the first trimester and can only be detected via ultrasound scan or early prenatal scan showing no fetal heartbeat or empty gestational sac. Most women don’t experience symptoms prior to discovering any issues during a routine prenatal visit or ultrasound scan.
Miscarriages often result in missed miscarriage because one of each parent’s 23 chromosomes doesn’t match up with those present in sperm; this may have happened due to genetics or because something went amiss during fertilization process.
Reasons for miscarriage could include infections or problems with the uterus or cervix, increasing after age 30 and peaking around age 40; miscarriage risks increase after 30 years and are highest after 40. Other contributing factors could include having had prior miscarriages; unmanaged diabetes or certain infections; family histories of miscarriage or genetic disorders, etc.
Stress, high blood pressure and certain medications may all play a part in miscarriages being missed. Anxiety and depression may impede a woman’s ability to carry her baby full term while altering maternal and fetal endocrines in ways that impact conception.
Miscarriages often begin naturally by bleeding and cramping; in these instances, tissue should pass within several days without intervention from medical procedures such as dilation and curettage (D&C) or dilation and evacuation (D&E), where tissues are scraped off the cervix before being scraped out through suctioning or vacuuming. If this doesn’t happen quickly enough or heavy bleeding persists then additional procedures such as dilation and curettage (D&C) or dilation and evacuation (D&E) may be needed in order to complete miscarriage successfully. D&C/D&E involves dilation of the cervix so tissues can be vacuumed out by either scraping or vacuuming out by vacuuming.
Surgical treatment provides more control, and can be conducted in either a doctor’s office or hospital setting. In both procedures, the cervix is first dilated before either a long sharp curette or vacuum device are used to extract any tissue accumulations from its base.
Symptoms
Missed miscarriage occurs when a fertilized egg implants into your uterus, but either its development is stopped, or its heartbeat stops entirely without you experiencing any of the classic signs of pregnancy loss like bleeding and cramping. It most often happens during the first trimester (6-10 weeks of gestation), commonly referred to as silent or early miscarriage; most will not know they’ve experienced one until their doctor detects it during an ultrasound or early pregnancy scan.
Your doctor will most often diagnose missed miscarriage after conducting a pelvic exam and blood test that reveal no fetal heartbeat or an embryo too small for gestation to progress. They might then order an ultrasound scan of your cervix (the lower end of the uterus), as well as recommend having your tissue tested in a laboratory to confirm its miscarriage and find out why it occurred.
As opposed to regular miscarriage, missed miscarriages often do not produce symptoms and your uterus can even heal without passing pregnancy tissue. This is because missed miscarriages usually happen before the fetus starts developing; typically within the first several weeks when the fetus is still too small to detect with ultrasound imaging or pregnancy testing.
Miscarriages often go undetected because a period resembling that of pregnancy often follows miscarriage – which may leave some people confused as to their status. Your regular menstrual cycle should resume four or six weeks post miscarriage, and then when ready, you can try for another pregnancy.
Many factors can lead to missed miscarriage, including chromosomal abnormalities that make it unlikely for a fetus to grow and develop normally, as well as weakness in your cervix that cannot support an embryo growing inside; this may happen if the cervix opens too soon or closes too quickly, an infection, or health complications in both areas are involved.
Treatment
Miscarriage occurs when a pregnancy ceases developing but does not pass from its mother’s womb, usually during the first trimester (up to 12 weeks of gestation). There may not be any symptoms; instead it might only become evident during an ultrasound scan at prenatal check-ups.
if the doctor cannot find a heartbeat during this scan, bloodwork will likely be ordered to monitor levels of the pregnancy hormone hCG; if these don’t increase at an expected pace they could declare an unsuccessful miscarriage attempt.
Women facing an unsuccessful miscarriage typically have three treatment options available to them: waiting for natural miscarriage to happen naturally, taking medications to speed up miscarriage or having surgery performed to remove pregnancy tissue from their uterus. They might also receive emotional support or seek talk therapy with a mental health professional.
After an attempted miscarriage has failed, it can take days or even weeks for your body to expel pregnancy tissue – this process is known as expectant management and your physician may suggest it if no signs of infection exist and you’re comfortable waiting it out.
Some women may find waiting it out daunting, if that’s the case for you, your doctor can provide misoprostol as an aid to speed things along. Misoprostol helps stimulate the uterus to contract and expel tissue through contraction or pessary application into vagina. You have options when choosing how best to take this medicine!
Surgery to extract pregnancy tissue may also be recommended by your physician if miscarriage doesn’t happen naturally or you show signs of infection; this procedure is called dilation and curettage or dilation and evacuation (D&C/D&E).
Miscarriage is a natural part of pregnancy; only about two percent of people will experience miscarriage twice. Most women who miscarry eventually go on to have healthy pregnancies again, but it is important to remain aware of what happened and when you may try again. Your healthcare provider can check your health thoroughly before informing you it’s safe.
Prevention
Miscarriage is often caused by genetic abnormalities that arise before conception and are completely out of a pregnant person’s hands. Early miscarriages often stem from incorrect pairing of chromosomes when egg and sperm join to create an embryo; this may also lead to conditions known as “blighted ovum,” in which an embryo implants but does not develop fully into a baby; infection, medical problems like clotting disorders or birth defects could all have a hand in miscarriage as well.
Most commonly, missed miscarriages aren’t discovered until a woman visits for her regular prenatal check-up and finds no heartbeat or gestational sac visible on ultrasound or Doppler readings. Sometimes a woman may notice her period has stopped or bleeding has increased significantly; as the pregnancy advances the risk for missed miscarriage decreases with only about 3 percent occurring during the second trimester.
Many women who experience miscarriage blame themselves and feel responsible. Though experiencing a miscarriage can be upsetting and distressful, it is essential to remember that it was never your responsibility and cannot be blamed on you personally. Your healthcare provider will treat for any infections or conditions which caused it.
Miscarriage can take several weeks or more for your body to fully heal from, due to pregnancy hormones lingering for two months post miscarriage. Most women start getting their period again four or six weeks post miscarriage.
Repeat miscarriages, more commonly seen among older women who have suffered multiple miscarriages, can occur. Prevention methods include refraining from alcohol or tobacco use during gestation, attending regular prenatal visits and eating healthily during gestation.