Miscarriage

What is miscarriage?

A miscarriage is a spontaneous pregnancy lost before the foetus is able to survive on its own. Miscarriages are very common and the risk of miscarriage increases with age. There are various factors which can cause miscarriage. However, most women who suffer miscarriage will go on to have a successful pregnancy.

What are signs of miscarriage?

Some women continue to feel pregnant and some women never feel pregnant. Sometimes women experience vaginal bleeding and abdominal pain.

How is miscarriage diagnosed?

We confirm a miscarriage by observing pregnancy tissue that you have passed or by performing an ultrasound.

How is miscarriage managed?

A complete miscarriage is when a woman passes all pregnancy tissue spontaneously. Usually bleeding stops over the next few weeks, and no additional management is required.

Incomplete miscarriage is when only part of pregnancy tissue is passed and bleeding continues sometimes with large blood clots. Usually suction evacuation of uterine content is required.

Occasionally miscarriage is diagnosed on routine ultrasound examination without any bleeding or pain. That is called missed miscarriage. Options for management include awaiting spontaneous expulsion of pregnancy tissue, medical management with hormones that act on uterus and help expelling pregnancy tissue. Third option is suction evacuation of uterine content.

What is recurrent pregnancy loss?

Recurrent pregnancy loss is when a woman has 3 or more miscarriages in the row. Some additional testing to find specific cause is usually preformed, however a lot of time no cause can be found. Those women will most likely have normal pregnancy next time.