Yesterday we talked about the most frequent reasons for blood loss in the first trimester of pregnancy. One of them is the miscarriage or natural abortion, which is technically defined as the loss of a pregnancy of less than 20 weeks gestation due to causes not intentionally provoked.
Most spontaneous abortions occur in the first 12 weeks of gestation and after 20 weeks are considered premature birth.
The causes for which a miscarriage is triggered can be very varied, but in most cases it is due to genetic failures in the early stages of embryo development.
There are certain myths related to spontaneous abortion that have no basis such as the practice of exercise, sex, heavy lifting or nausea can cause a loss of pregnancy.
On the other hand, if the pregnant woman suffers a fall or a minor accident, this is rarely the cause of an abortion.
Miscarriage is a natural mechanism of the organism that reacts to a problem.
Threatened abortion
Before it is determined that the fetus inside the uterus has no life, what is called the threatened abortion.
An abortion threat is characterized by a metrorrhagia (any vaginal bleeding from the uterus, not associated with the menstrual cycle), whether mild or moderate, accompanied or not by painful uterine contractions.
If you have any loss, you should immediately go to the doctor who will perform an examination to see the condition of the cervix (if it is open or closed) and an ultrasound to check the vitality of the fetus. If it determines that there is a threat of abortion (for whatever reason) it will recommend resting measures to retain the embryo.
In certain cases, rest is sufficient to prevent miscarriage and that the threat of abortion is only a threat. However, if the cause of the threat of abortion is a genetic failure, rest cannot prevent the loss of pregnancy.
What to do before a miscarriage
If it is confirmed that there has been a miscarriage, the doctor will evaluate the type of abortion (we will talk in another post about the types of abortion) and based on that, he will consider what is the best way to proceed.
You can prescribe a drug treatment, curettage or if the pregnancy is very recent, let the body itself expel the uterine contents. In the latter case it will give pain relievers for uterine contractions.
In either case, the woman must return to a review when the losses were over.
After three months you can try again to get pregnant with high chances of achieving it.
Having had a spontaneous abortion is not an abnormality when looking for a new pregnancy. A woman who has suffered a miscarriage has a normal chance of pregnancy, the same as a woman who has not had abortions.
It is only considered that there could be a reproductive problem in case of having three consecutive or repeated miscarriages.
Emotional aspects
Women who have suffered a miscarriage know that it is a very unpleasant experience and when it happens we feel fear. When it happens to us we realize that it is much more frequent than we thought, that Fulanita and Menganita also happened, and that comforts us.
But it is totally normal to feel depressed, frustrated and even guilty. We feel hurt in our femininity.
The advice I can give you having gone through it is not to look for guilt where there is none, lean on the couple and the family and try to get pregnant again with the same illusion once the time recommended by the doctor has passed.
Next time everything will be fine, you'll see. It is said by someone who has had a miscarriage and then three beautiful daughters. Cheer up!
