In addition, many women who have been taking depression medications such as SSRIs and become pregnant are told that these medications are generally classified as safe to take while pregnant.

However, in a new study released by the Canadian Medical Association Journal on May 31 2010 found that women taking these medications while pregnant are increasing their risk of miscarriage by almost 68 percent or more.

How and Why?

It is already known that of all women who become pregnant, 20 percent of them have miscarriages for some reason within their first three trimesters.

However, those who are taking the SSRIs are now known to increase those risks. However, according to Adrienne Einarson, the author of an editorial piece submitted with the study in the Journal said that it is good to keep in mind that, “This is an association, not a cause,” and that if the mothers to be are being treated for the depression and need the medication to ward off symptoms of the illness, then by all means take the medication.

The fact of the matter is that if the mother stops the medication she may in fact cause more harm with the anxiety and other depression symptoms than do good by stopping the medication to lower the risk of miscarriage.

How to help

However, for those women who need anti-depressants while pregnant, they should keep their dosage to a minimum but still effectively treat the depression as determined by the woman’s doctor.

This is because it was also shown that those women taking the anti-depressants who were on higher doses had the higher incidence of miscarriage risk.

Source: HealthDay

Prolife and Prochoice are two sides of a raging debate, wherein each side has some very valid points, whereas the former present abortion as murder, the latter view is that women should have the choice to make the decision that is best for them.

The fact is that no one except the woman who has conceived knows exactly the circumstances in which the fetus was conceived, her own mental, physical and financial state as regards her ability to bring another child into the world, her fear at being completely unable to cope and about the plans that she has for herself in the long term.

There are many personal reasons that a woman may have to have a pregnancy terminated. There is the option of putting a child up for adoption but system is not always so efficient as to be able to place children in homes that want them and are able to look after them.

Additionally, a woman may feel unable to carry the child to term and then offer it for adoption. It is difficult for many to envisage the uncertain future that a baby may have when it hasn’t a natural guardian to take care of it. A future such as that may be difficult or even impossible for many to contemplate.

There is also one view that says abortion is much the same as birth control: both prevent life, however at different stages. This view is of course rejected for the reason that with birth control there is no destruction as such. However consider the point of viability of life.

A fetus is not viable until a certain point in gestation, and cannot survive on its own before that time. Until such time it is not considered an individual in its own right and is therefore up to the woman to decide what is best for her body, her life and eventually her baby when she chooses to have it.

Abortion is legal and no woman needs to feel guilty for having chosen to go that way.

It is important to remember that no one who pickets abortion clinics or who otherwise tries to discourage abortion knows exactly what it is to have undergone what that woman, who is considering an abortion, has undergone. No one except that woman knows exactly her circumstances, her thoughts and her conflicts.

There are several different methods of abortion, and they can each be used at different stages of the pregnancy.

Abortion Pill or Medical Abortion: This is also called an abortifacient or a substance that induces abortion. This is to be distinguished from an emergency contraception pill or the morning after pill which prevents a conception.

An abortion pill ends a pregnancy that is already subsisting. This is usually a two step process involving two doses and is seen to be successful in 90% cases as long as it is used within 49 days of gestation.

Vacuum Abortion: If the abortion is to be performed within 12 weeks of the conception, vacuum or suction aspiration where the pregnancy is removed from the uterus by vacuuming through a syringe. This is also the procedure used after a spontaneous abortion or miscarriage or when a sample of the endometrial lining is required for a biopsy. This is now the most common and safest obstetric procedure.

Dilating and Curettage (D&C): Here the cervix is dilated and the content of the uterus are surgically removed by using a curette, or a sharp curettage to scrape the lining of the uterus and checked for completeness so that no part of the pregnancy gets left behind.

Late term abortion is both more dangerous and more controversial because it is considered a viable fetus after 20 weeks gestation. In some cases D&C is still used, however many times labor is induced for this kind of abortion.

In many places abortion after the first trimester is not permitted by law or requires certain specific criteria to be met. The risk to the mother increases significantly after the first trimester so unless there is a medical requirement to terminate a pregnancy, this is not advisable.

For more information about abortion and birth control, it is available at Planned Parenthood.org which is a good resource for information and support. Here you will get help to find the nearest Planned Parenthood health center where confidential and low cost health care can be obtained.

A miscarriage can be a very difficult and traumatic thing to deal with, and can take a woman a long time to come to terms with it and to heal.

It is common for women to feel emotions such as guilt, anger, depression, hopelessness, even fear at undergoing a miscarriage; however with some effort one can overcome them.

Guilt is a common emotion felt after a miscarriage; with the woman being convinced that it was something that she did, or did not do that caused the miscarriage. In fact 40% or more of all miscarriages have no medical reason for having happened.

Some pregnancies are high risk ones and women with certain conditions may not carry a baby to term, however the fact is that most miscarriages are impossible to prevent, and guilt that a woman may feel about the occurrence is likely to be misplaced.

Anger at having lost a dearly awaited individual in one’s life is also a natural consequence of a miscarriage. One may rail at fate or at the doctor for failing to predict and prevent an occurrence such as a miscarriage and this anger could well be the first step in the process of healing.

If a constructive channel for expression of anger is sought this could be actually productive.

Depression can set in after a miscarriage as well: crying jags at odd times, a reluctance to meet people or get out of the house, a lassitude and general disinterest in things can all be problems against which a woman may need to be proactive and could actually need some help with. At such a time, picking up a new hobby to divert the mind may be a good idea.

It is important to get some closure to the episode of miscarriage in order to put it behind you: dedicate something to the baby that wasn’t to be, plant a tree in its memory, memorialize the event in some way.

Some women choose to keep a journal. Joining a support group can be very useful in getting over such a traumatic event. Sometimes it is necessary to take the time to grieve, for which it may be necessary to take some time off.

It is also important to remember that a miscarriage, for the most part is not the end, it can well mean a new beginning in the near future!

Studies have shown that as many as 25% of pregnancies are miscarried by the sixth week of gestation. As many as 8% of pregnancies end in a miscarriage after the 6th week.

Miscarriages can be of several different kinds:

• a complete miscarriage is when the entire contents of the uterus are expelled
• An incomplete miscarriage is when only a part of the contents of the uterus are expelled. This would typically require a D&C surgery where the uterus is dilated and scraped to expel any of the remaining pregnancy.
• A missed miscarriage is when the fetus, for some reason stops growing within the uterus and this is a condition that can usually be detected by the doctor’s investigations rather than the usual bleeding and pain that signals a miscarriage.

Factors that raises miscarriage risk

There are several factors that significantly raise chances of a woman having a miscarriage and they are:

• Advanced age of parents. This refers not only to the age of the mother but also the father. The higher the age of the parents the higher the risk of a pregnancy ending in a miscarriage
• Multiple fetus pregnancies have a higher risk of miscarriage
• A woman having uncontrolled diabetes is at a higher risk of pregnancy. This also refers to gestational diabetes (which the woman may develop for the first time when pregnant) which has to be kept in check.
• Another condition that may develop during pregnancy is pre-eclampsia or high blood pressure that also increases the risk of miscarriage.
• Women with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome are at higher risk of miscarriage. Between 30 and 50% of pregnancies occurring in women with PCOS end in a miscarriage.
• Certain disorders and illnesses increase chances of having a miscarriage: for instance severe hypothyroidism increases risk of a miscarriage as do illnesses such as rubella, Chlamydia etc,
• Smoking and substance abuse such as cocaine also greatly increases the chances of miscarriage.
• Physical injury and environmental factors also can pose risk to a pregnancy.

Understanding the risk factors for a pregnancy ending in miscarriage is important in minimizing the chances of occurrence.

You may have lost your baby during an earlier pregnancy  trimesters or you may have lost your baby right when your baby was about to born.

The hurt that you feel will depend on the hopes and dreams that you had for your pregnancy. It will depend upon how long you carried your baby and what movement you felt during your pregnancy.

Also it may depend upon if you have any other children or not. Losing a baby no matter in what stage of pregnancy is a terrible thing and you must try not to blame yourself for the loss.

Depend Upon Your Partner and Family

The grief that you are feeling will not go away in just a day. You may feel a certain amount of grief wash over you for years to come when you think of your lost baby. Leaning on each other, is a good way to deal with all of your grief.

You do not need to go through this alone. Turn to your friends and family for support. The love and support of your family and friends will help you and your partner to deal with your grief.

Some of your friends and family may have gone through losing their own baby and they will really understand what you are going through.

Getting Professional Help

Sometimes when you lose a baby you may feel totally overwhelmed and cannot seem to return to daily life. Depression has probably taken over and you could feel lifeless. You may be feeling like you do not want to get out of bed.

Eating too much or losing too much weight is also signs that you are depressed. It feels like you never want to face people again and you may feel that nobody understands what you are going through.

Sitting in your baby nursery for hours is a huge sign that you are having trouble dealing emotionally. If any of these signs occur you will need to contact a professional counselor or other health professional that can help you deal with your depression.

Honor Your Baby

Even though your baby is no longer with you, they will be forever in your memories. You may want to name your baby whether you knew what sex the baby was or not. Naming your baby will help you to find closure.

Holding a special memorial service for the wonderful baby that you lost is another way to help you deal with your miscarriage.

Remember the day you lost your child as the day they were born with a ritual each year. To help yourself and to help others you may want to donate a gift to a baby that is living. All of these things will help you to cope with your loss.

Do not give up on having a baby [Pregnancy After Miscarriage]. Just because it was not meant for this baby to remain on earth with you does not mean that you cannot have another child.

However, most pregnant women worry about suffering from a miscarriage.

During the initial stages of pregnancy, if you observe any bleeding other than spotting, you may be suffering from what is known as threatened miscarriage.

Threatened miscarriage puts your baby at the risk of miscarriage. If you observe any signs and symptoms of threatened miscarriage, immediately visit your practitioner.

Vaginal bleeding during the initial 20 weeks of pregnancy is called suffering from a threatened miscarriage. This condition is also known as threatened spontaneous abortion and they are most common.

Up to 30% of all pregnancies experience various types of vaginal bleeding during the initial 20 weeks of pregnancy. Most commonly, threatened miscarriage will be encountered before the 12th week of pregnancy.

Recognizing the condition of threatened miscarriage:

Vaginal bleeding before pregnancy week 20 is the most common symptom of threatened miscarriage. However, the appearance of vaginal bleeding varies from bright red to light pink and brown.

This vaginal bleeding can also show in the form of spotting or like a large discharge. Some other common symptoms of threatened miscarriage include:

• Stomach cramps and pain in the lower abdomen. It may be on one side, both sides or also in the middle. The pain can also spread into your buttocks, genitals and lower back.
• Back pain, mainly in your lower back.

Reasons behind the occurrence of threatened miscarriage:

In most pregnant women, the reasons behind threatened miscarriage are unknown. However, various factors can lead to vaginal bleeding. They include:

• Ectopic pregnancy;
• Infections like STDs;
• Ovarian cysts, polyps and uterine fibroids;
• Placental problems;
• Endometriosis;
• Pelvic inflammatory diseases;
• Inflammation of the cervix due to participating in sexual intercourse[Cervicitis].

Treating the condition of threatened miscarriage:

Frankly speaking, there are not any treatments and medications that can reduce the problem of vaginal bleeding. Your practitioner will suggest certain things such as:

• If you have minor bleeding and your baby is growing healthily, then your practitioner will suggest you wait and watch for any changes in your vaginal bleeding.
• The practitioner will suggest pelvic rest in order to prevent any kind of trauma to your cervix. Your doctor will recommend you stop the usage of tampons and douches and suggests you to stay away from sexual intercourse for a certain period of time.
• You will be advised to lessen the amount of activity you are undergoing everyday. Forceful exercises and any other meticulous activities can keep you at risk of miscarriage. You need to get plenty of rest during these times.
• It will be suggested to follow a regular course of progesterone. Progesterone helps to relax the uterine muscles and lessens the threat of miscarriage.

Though you receive proper treatment to reduce threatened miscarriage, it is very difficult to reduce the chances of occurrence.

Therefore, you should maintain regular prenatal appointments and follow a healthy lifestyle to stay healthy throughout your pregnancy.

Sometime you will be shocked by hearing the news of ultrasound test, when there is no visible developing embryo.

Probably you will feel sad and confused. It takes some time to understand what the blighted ovum is.

Don’t forget that you are not the one who is suffering from this pregnancy complication.

Blighted ovum – What it exactly means?

Blighted ovum is the condition that occurs when the fertilized egg connects itself to the uterine walls, but you won’t notice any development of embryo. Usually, this condition occurs in the first pregnancy trimester before you came to know that you are pregnant.

In this condition, cells will be developed and forms the amniotic sac, but they won’t develop the embryo. Higher the chromosome abnormality, the greater is the chance to occur natural miscarriages.

Nowadays, instead of calling the term blighted ovum, most of the practitioners use the term as early pregnancy failure.

How to aware of the condition whether you have or haven’t the blighted ovum?

• You will experience pregnancy signs and symptoms like missed or late menstrual period and also positive pregnancy test.
• At first, you will observe reddish brown stains. You may experience vaginal bleeding and abdominal cramping because of the increased hormone levels.
• Similar to the normal menstrual period, you may experience flushing of the uterine walls and have heavier periods than normal.

Most of the pregnant women think that their pregnancy is continuing, because they have improved levels of hCG. There is the continual growth of the placenta and support itself without having the baby for short period.

The hormones in their body are continues to increase, due to this the women feel that they are still pregnant.

Main cause behind blighted ovum:

Usually, blighted ovum is the result of chromosomal problems and it mainly occurs due to the miscarriages during first trimester of your pregnancy.

Your body recognizes the abnormal chromosomes in your fetus and from then onwards there is not any fetal development. This is due to the poor sperm quality or your egg, due to abnormal cell division.

How blighted ovum can be treated?

Most of the practitioners suggest that treating blighted ovum naturally is the best way. In some cases, pregnancy loss will occur, while in others there is a chance to reabsorb the fertilized egg.

Re-absorbing the egg will lead to cause heavier menstrual period than normal. While treating the blighted ovum naturally, you must avoid potential scaring so that your fertile health will be safe.

There are two methods for treating blighted ovum, one is suction curettage and the other is dilation and curettage (D&C). In suction curettage, the products of conception will be vacuumed out.

In D&C, there is cervix dilation and scrapping down of the uterus sides so that all the tissues will be removed. With these procedures, you won’t experience any infection later on.

Getting pregnant again:

There is no need to worry about blighted ovum, as it won’t cause any fertility problems. But, you need to wait for 1-3 months before you are trying to conceive. Though you are physically fit for getting pregnancy, you might not be ready emotionally.

So, be cool and you are not the only person who is suffering from this condition. Definitely there is a chance to become pregnant again.

Every year in the United States, there are approximately 600,000 women who experience pregnancy miscarriages.

Most of the pregnancy miscarriages happen before the end of first trimester of pregnancy.

The loss of pregnancy in the first trimester is known as early miscarriage.

However, pregnancy miscarriages can also occur in the second trimester. The miscarriages at this stage refer to late miscarriages.

The causes of pregnancy miscarriage are several, but most often it cannot be recognized. The most common cause of miscarriage is chromosomal abnormality. Chromosomes are special strands that hold the DNA of the baby.

There are 23 pairs of chromosomes in a human body to determine the physical characteristics and to carry out functions of the body.

After fertilization, the egg may begin to separate improperly with unusual number of chromosomes. Molar pregnancy is the most common type of chromosomal abnormality.

It is found that up to 75% of first trimester pregnancy miscarriages occur due to chromosomal defects. Most chromosomal abnormalities occur due to a defective egg or sperm, or due to the problem in the cell division process of the zygote.

Another cause of pregnancy miscarriage is uterus or cervix abnormality. You have 12% chances of having miscarriage during 12-24 weeks with this cause.

With uterus defect or abnormal shape, the uterus may not expand properly as the baby develops. Thus, a miscarriage may happen. On the other hand, a weak cervix may begin to open up and the baby may come out.

Immune disorders are one more cause of pregnancy miscarriage. Antiphospholipid antibodies can make blood clots in the placenta, which blocks or reduce the supply of blood to the baby, thus resulting in very slow growth in the baby or the baby may die overall.

Antinuclear antibodies will develop due to an autoimmune problem in Lupus or a Lupus-like syndrome. With this condition, the body attacks itself leading to a pregnancy miscarriage.

Blighted ovum is another common cause of pregnancy miscarriage. Blighted ovum will form when a fertilized egg implants within the uterus wall, but no fetal development. In this condition, the amniotic sac develops in the uterus without fetus.

The reason can be either the development of the baby may stop early or the absence of embryo in the uterus completely.

Ectopic pregnancy is a pregnancy where the implantation of the fertilized egg will be outside the uterus, mostly within one of the fallopian tubes. It can also develop in your ovaries or in abdomen.

Ectopic pregnancy is also known as a tubal pregnancy. Women with this type of pregnancy have fifty percent chances of having pregnancy miscarriage.

Even health conditions of the mother can lead to pregnancy miscarriage. Diabetes, hypertension, heart problems, and thyroid problems increases your chances of having miscarriage.

Smoking, alcohol consumption, drug usage, malnutrition, caffeine and exposure to toxic substances cause miscarriage. Age is a major factor of pregnancy miscarriage. The chances of having pregnancy loss increase over the age 35 and more.

Pregnancy termination can be done in two ways: using medical procedure and surgical abortion.

There are options of pregnancy termination depending on stage of your pregnancy [Abortion Procedures].

There will be more options for the earlier stage of pregnancy and almost all pregnancies that are unplanned will end in termination of pregnancy.

Pregnancy termination is a common gynecological process that will be performed in medical clinics and is a safe procedure with less risk involved.

If you make a decision of abortion, then it will be helpful to have information on pregnancy termination and its procedures, its cost, etc. before you proceed with pregnancy termination.

In the first trimester, if you chose to have pregnancy termination then you have two options. One is medication abortion and the other is vacuum aspiration.

In medication abortion, medicine will be used to abort your baby. It can be done during forty nine to sixty two days of your first trimester. It will be successful up to 95%.

You will be getting abortion pill called Mifeprex, which is a combination drug. The process will include up to four weeks. It will be much of a natural process. It does not require any invasive procedure or anesthesia.

Mifeprex is a combination of mifepristone and misoprostol. This drug is also called as RU486. Your health care professional will give you mifepristone in the clinic and then after 24-48 hours take misoprostol as per the directions of your doctor.

This drug will be given for pregnancy termination only after confirmation with ultrasound if your pregnancy is less than eight weeks.

In the surgical procedure (vacuum aspiration), cervix is dilated with a hand-held suction device to terminate the pregnancy.

It can be done throughout first trimester. It will be 99% successful. The process for vacuum aspiration will be three to five minutes. It requires invasive process and anesthesia.

You will be having some mild-to-moderate cramping during this procedure and you will be given pain medication during this procedure and also after the procedure. After the surgical abortion, bleeding continues for six to eight weeks.

The cost for pregnancy termination is completely dependent on the stage of your pregnancy.

It is the safe procedure and is safer than childbirth. There is less than 1% risk involved with abortion. The risks include infection, incomplete abortion, and perforation of uterine wall.

Some of the women can experience major complications after pregnancy termination, which include heavy bleeding and need curettage to stop the bleeding. Some women even need blood transfusion.

Research proved that there is no relation between the abortion and breast cancer. So, you need not worry about breast cancer with pregnancy termination. Discuss with your partner before taking the decision for pregnancy termination.

If you feel your decision is wise and there is no need to think about it again and if you have any questions with regard to this, consult your doctor and proceed as per instructions given by your doctor.