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Miscarriage

‘The spontaneous loss of a pregnancy before the 20th week, when the fetus is not able to survive independently.’

Most women can have healthy babies after a miscarriage.

10 to 20 percent of confirmed pregnancies end in miscarriage, however most women will go on to have perfectly healthy babies thereafter. There are several types of miscarriage; threatened, inevitable, complete, incomplete or missed, and the signs are as follows.

Miscarriage symptoms & causes

Bleeding and cramping tummy pain, very similar to period pain, may indicate a possible miscarriage, so it’s best to have it checked out immediately.

A miscarriage generally happens because the fetus isn’t developing properly, and this is almost always out of your control. It could be related to hormone levels, or a chromosome problem, and there’s very little you can do about it.

Management of miscarriage

What we can do, however, is support you through what can be a very challenging time. Keeping your health front and centre, we can manage a miscarriage in one of the following ways.

Conservative management
Also known as ‘expectant management’, this involves resting at home until the pregnancy tissue naturally passes from your womb. This may be recommended if the miscarriage happens early in the pregnancy, and we would monitor your progress along the way.

Medical management
If suitable, we can often accelerate the passing of pregnancy tissues with medication. This can happen in a health care setting, or at home.

Surgical management
If you have heavy bleeding, severe pain or signs of infection, a surgical approach may be recommended. The procedure is called a ‘dilatation and curettage’, it’s performed under a general anaesthetic and only takes 5 – 10 minutes once you are under. It may also be an option if the other two methods have failed, or you simply chose this as your first preference.