In case you are interested in what a missed miscarriage is, you should know that it refers to the situation in which the body doesn’t recognize the death of the fetus and abortion doesn’t happen in the same time with miscarriage. Just as in other cases of miscarriages, this usually takes place during the first trimester.
Information about incomplete miscarriage
The death of the fetus is recognized when the doctor finds a lack of fetal heartbeat that can be heard during a Doppler test. After this the diagnosis is confirmed by an ultrasound. Often women don’t even know that they had a miscarriage, but they can observe some brown spotting.
The next steps
Since in case of an incomplete miscarriage the body doesn’t abort immediately, it is possible that it takes too much time. In this case it is the pediatrician that has to end the pregnancy, and he or she has several different options to do so.
If the missed miscarriage takes place very early, during the first 7-8 weeks of pregnancy, you could receive medication life misoprostol that will clear the remaining pregnancy tissue from the uterus. The advantage is that it isn’t invasive and the effects are something like a heavy period.
Although you may have the incomplete miscarriage at an early stage, it is still very likely that you will experience some level of pain. This is why doctors offer painkillers to their patients. Passing tissue isn’t supposed to be painful, but it may be stressful from an emotional point of view.
Progressing pregnancy
In case the missed miscarriage takes place at a later stage, after the 8th or 9th week, the doctors need to perform dilation and curettage. This is the same procedure that women have in case they would like to abort; the only difference is that you don’t have to go to an abortion clinic to have it.
If you had an incomplete miscarriage all of the hospitals will offer you this procedure, even if they are against abortion. The main point of D&C is to minimize the chances of infection. In case the pregnancy tissue isn’t removed from the body in time it could get infected and cause health issues.
It is possible for the missed miscarriage not to be diagnosed, for instance in case of women who didn’t even know they were pregnant. If this is the case the pregnancy tissue could cause pain, illness and blood infection and her fertility could also be compromised.
Those women who had an incomplete miscarriage and have been bearing the tissues for longer periods of time may need hospitalization to treat the infections that could be life threatening. In the majority of the cases D&C is an outpatient procedure.
The patients who had a missed miscarriage and have gone through D&C could notice some bleeding that will gradually lessen. In case you experience pain, fever or heavy bleeding you should seek immediate medical help because she might be affected by a rare but serious complication.
After D&C
Women who have gone through an incomplete miscarriage can expect to experience some pain after the procedure. In the majority of the cases the doctors say that it is best not to have sexual intercourse for six weeks after a miscarriage. Also women should wait for 3 months to get pregnant again.
In case a woman had a missed miscarriage, she may suffer from postpartum depression just as the women who gave birth to a child. This is because of the pregnancy hormones have an effect on the mood of women and it is normal to experience some of the depression symptoms.
