29.03.2024

Why does a miscarriage occur in early pregnancy?

Pregnancy, if desired, is wonderful. But not all pregnancies end as planned. Sometimes the body of the expectant mother independently decides to reject a new life, and usually this happens in the first weeks after conception, that is, a miscarriage occurs in the early stages.

According to statistics, this is observed in 20% of women, while many of them did not even know that they were in a position. From a medical point of view, a miscarriage is a spontaneous abortion before the onset of 22 weeks.

After this period, we are no longer talking about miscarriage, but about premature birth, since starting from week 22 a child has a high chance of being born viable.
The probability of a miscarriage by week

There are critical periods of pregnancy when her further bearing is at risk. And the first trimester is the most vulnerable in this regard.

2-3 weeks

At this time, the embryo is implanted, and in this case factors such as fibroids, scar or trauma on the mucosa (after abortion, cesarean section), abnormalities in the structure of the uterus, and also the severe psychoemotional state of the woman can prevent it.

A miscarriage in the early stages of pregnancy occurs if the fetal egg is unable to attach. It looks like a plentiful period. The woman in this case does not even know that she was pregnant, taking the bleeding for the next menstruation.

4-6 week

At this time, the fetus is most vulnerable, right now all malformations (heart disease, cleft lip) that may be incompatible with life are formed.

8-12 weeks

At this stage, active development affects the placenta, and it is possible that anomalies in its structure or localization may occur. Also, at this time, a miscarriage can occur due to hormonal disorders in the body of a woman, in particular, progesterone deficiency.

Causes

Consider the main causes of early miscarriage.

Genetic disorders in the fetus

According to statistics, 73% of early miscarriages occur for this reason. In most cases, we are not talking about a hereditary problem, but about single gene mutations that occurred by chance as a result of the influence of negative factors, such as infections, alcohol.

That is, pregnancy was initially pathological, and the body itself abandoned it – there was a so-called natural selection. A miscarriage at such an early stage is done without cleaning and occurs on the days when menstruation should begin, or with a slight delay.

A woman may note that the discharge this month was more plentiful and painful. Less often, pregnancy is terminated later, and then genetic abnormalities of the fetus are diagnosed by histological examination after curettage of the uterus.

Hormonal disorders

The disturbed balance of hormones in the body increases the likelihood of a miscarriage in the early stages. Pregnancy is usually terminated due to a lack of progesterone. If you detect the problem in advance, you can save the pregnancy using conservative therapy.

Immunological reasons

This is most often observed in Rh conflict. If the mother’s blood has a negative Rh factor, and the fetus inherits a Rh positive protein from the father, the maternal body will reject embryonic tissues at the immune level.

To prevent the immunological causes of miscarriage during Rh conflict, specific therapy is used, including progesterone preparations that can protect the fetus.

Genital infections

These diseases are also an explanation of why miscarriage occurs in the early stages. Chlamydia, toxoplasmosis, gonorrhea and other STDs often cause abortion in the first trimester. The pathogenic flora causes damage to the membranes, infects the fetus itself, resulting in a miscarriage.

To exclude this, it is important to identify and treat any infectious pathologies of the genital area even at the stage of pregnancy planning.

Common infections

Any diseases that occur with signs of intoxication, for example, with an increase in body temperature above 38 ° C, can be the cause of a miscarriage in early pregnancy. The leading positions in the list of these infections are given to influenza, rubella, chickenpox and viral hepatitis. Even ordinary sore throat often causes fetal death before 10 weeks of gestation, the situation looks worse with pneumonia, appendicitis and pyelonephritis.

Therefore, when planning a pregnancy, you need to remember about a preliminary medical examination, which will help to detect the foci of infection present in the body.

Abortion

A large number of women at various stages of their lives resorted to this procedure for one reason or another. To many failed mothers, abortion seems like a simple manipulation, during which the doctor simply removes the contents of the uterus along with the unwanted fetus. But in fact, everything is much more complicated.

An abortion is always a deep stress for a woman’s body, which can subsequently cause dysfunctional disorders of the reproductive system, problems with the adrenal glands and ovaries, inflammation in the pelvic organs, ending with adhesions and subsequent infertility.

Due to the negative consequences that abortion causes, a woman may experience habitual miscarriage, explaining why miscarriages occur in the early stages.

Medicines and herbal preparations

In the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, it is better not to take any medications or herbs at all. Most of them, especially with uncontrolled use, can terminate a pregnancy or provoke the development of defects in the unborn child.

The most dangerous antibiotics, hormones, some analgesics and an overwhelming number of plants, even harmless chamomile and parsley are not indicated for internal use in the first trimester.

Many medicinal plants are used in folk recipes that tell women who do not want to maintain pregnancy how to make a miscarriage in the early stages.

Stress, nervous shock

Deep nervous shock, prolonged stress, sudden mental shock are dangerous during pregnancy. So that the situation does not end in a miscarriage, the expectant mother needs to pull herself together and discuss with the doctor the possibility of using sedative drugs.

Unhealthy Lifestyle

Habits such as smoking, drinking alcohol and drugs, the uncontrolled cravings of coffee, dieting, and starvation, as well as just poor nutrition, can lead to the development of symptoms of miscarriage in early pregnancy.

It is recommended to engage in the correction of your usual lifestyle at the stage of pregnancy planning.

Weight lifting, falls, hectic sex life

These factors, although very rare, can cause miscarriage. To avoid this, it is important to take care of yourself from the first days, as it became known about pregnancy.

Symptoms

Most often, a woman threatening or starting a miscarriage is indicated by pain localized in the abdomen, and vaginal bleeding. Pain can be radiating to the lower back. Bloody discharge from the genital tract can be of different colors and intensities, but their appearance in any form should be an obligatory reason for urgent consultation with a doctor.

Minor discharge often means that pregnancy can still be maintained. Heavy bleeding, especially with clots and pieces of tissue, indicates that the pregnancy has already ended. Typically, these symptoms of early miscarriage are accompanied by an increased tone of the uterus, which causes discomfort and pain in a woman.

Sometimes the above symptoms occur in the first trimester, but the pregnancy does not end, and the woman continues to carry her further under the close supervision of a gynecologist and the “threatened miscarriage” mark in the outpatient card.

Regardless of the gestational age, the signs of abortion are similar in the fifth and twentieth week. Therefore, you need to know how they appear in order to take action in time.

Stages

Spontaneous abortion occurs in several stages.

Stage One – A Threatening Miscarriage

Signs of an early miscarriage are characterized by aching pain in the lower back and lower abdomen. Sometimes minor spotting from the genital tract appears.

These symptoms require immediate treatment, since in the first stage, pregnancy can almost always be maintained.

The second stage – a miscarriage that has begun

Pain sensations become more intense, take on a cramping nature, localizing in the sacrum and abdomen. Bloody discharge intensifies, especially with a woman’s physical activity. There is a feeling of weakness, dizziness.

Pregnancy can still be saved if help is provided on time. Refusal from hospitalization is highly discouraged.

Third stage – miscarriage

Pain in the abdomen and lower back becomes sharp. Blood loss is significant. The fetus is already dead at this stage, pregnancy cannot be maintained. A fetal egg can partially leave the uterus along with bleeding (in this case, they speak of an incomplete miscarriage) or go out completely.

The fourth stage – a completed miscarriage

In the fourth stage, the fetus is completely expelled from the uterine cavity. The organ is contracting, its size is returning to normal. Bleeding after an early miscarriage comes to an end stops. It is necessary using ultrasound to find out whether there are any remains of the fetus and fetal membranes in the uterus.

What happens after a miscarriage

If there is a suspicion of spontaneous abortion, a woman should contact a medical institution. Only a specialist can say with certainty whether a miscarriage occurred or not. Usually, an ultrasound scan and a blood test for hCG, the hormone of pregnancy, are performed for this purpose.

If there is no fetal egg in the uterus, and the results of hCG are unsatisfactory, then there is no pregnancy. A woman should consult a gynecologist. The doctor will help you find out the cause of the miscarriage and give recommendations for further action.

Complications

Most women who have had a miscarriage feel satisfactory. But in 10% of cases there may be complications, such as abdominal pain and bleeding of varying intensity.

An urgent need to see a doctor if, after a  miscarriage in the early stages of pregnancy, the following symptoms occurred  :

  • massive bleeding;
  • sharp abdominal pains;
  • cramps, high fever;
  • heart palpitations;
  • nausea, vomiting.
Curettage of the uterus

Cleaning, or curettage of the uterus is carried out in order to eliminate the remnants of the membranes and the fetus. This is a surgical procedure performed under general or local anesthesia. During cleaning, the woman is on the gynecological chair. Her external genitalia are treated with 5% iodine solution. The doctor introduces the vaginal speculum, exposing and fixing the cervix, and then through the curette, which has the appearance of a spoon, performs the curettage itself.

After cleaning, the extracted biological material is sent to the laboratory for further research. The histology of a miscarriage must be carried out in order to find out the cause of the problem and to prevent it in the future.

Do you always need cleaning?

Many women are sure that they know how a miscarriage occurs in the early stages, and are in no hurry to seek medical help or refuse to clean, considering it an unnecessary manipulation. But this is not so. The fetus and fetal membranes are extremely rarely expelled in full. And if they are not removed from the uterus on time, they will decompose and cause inflammation in the female body.

That is why after a miscarriage, regardless of the conditions in which it occurred, you should contact a medical institution where the doctor will determine exactly whether or not to clean. If curettage is necessary, you should not refuse it, since complications can be more serious.

Treatment after a miscarriage

To do without consequences, it is important to comply with the requirements of a doctor:

  • monitor the discharge from the genital tract, in case of change – contact a doctor;
  • control body temperature – its growth may mean inflammation in the body;
  • monitor the purity of the genital organs, washing them at least twice a day with antiseptic solutions.

To normalize hormonal levels, the doctor may prescribe COCs (Logest, Lindinet 20). Birth control pills after an early miscarriage are also a prevention of early re-pregnancy, which is undesirable in the first 6 months after curettage. Antibiotics (Cifran) are also prescribed to prevent infection of the genital area after the intervention.

How to restore health after a miscarriage

Many women see the soonest re-conception of a child as a way to survive an early miscarriage. This is a normal mental reaction.

But before planning a new pregnancy, doctors advise paying attention to their own health with the help of the following recommendations:

  • Within 6 months, you should not become pregnant in order to give the body time to rehabilitate the reproductive system and prevent a new failure. This will require reliable contraception in the form of COCs or condoms.
  • It is important to prepare the body for a second pregnancy. Measures to prevent miscarriage should be discussed with your doctor.

Currently, there are not only antenatal clinics, but also family reproduction centers where doctors specializing in the conception and gestation of pregnancy work. Do not neglect the help of these centers.

Specialists will be able to draw up an individual work plan, starting from the health and reproductive capabilities of partners, which will help ensure successful conception and pregnancy in the future.

Psychological rehabilitation

After a miscarriage occurs in the early stages of pregnancy, the female body is physically restored after 4-6 weeks, and psychological rehabilitation can last for years. If the pregnancy was desired and planned, then it is difficult to cope with the load of loss.

In this case, it is recommended not to shut oneself in oneself, not to look for the guilty, and especially not to blame yourself for the failure. In 73% of cases, spontaneous abortion occurs due to mutations, chromosomal problems, which means that the fetus was not healthy. You need to tune in to the fact that after some time a new pregnancy will come, for which you need to prepare better than last time.

After the bleeding has passed after the miscarriage at an early date, you need not sit back, but consult a doctor, undergo an examination, pass tests for possible infections, and do an ultrasound. All these actions should distract a woman who wants to become pregnant again from the development of depression. Waiting for the verdict of the doctor, you can consult a psychologist to smooth out the acute moments of fears and worries.

Even if pregnancy does not occur on the first attempt, there is no need to panic. Most likely, the “striped” test will not be long in coming, and you can start this path again from conception to the logical conclusion of pregnancy, that is, the birth of a child. Everything will work out!

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