Miscarriage

A mis­car­riage is the loss of a preg­nancy that hap­pens some­time dur­ing the first 23 weeks. The major­ity of mis­car­riages hap­pen dur­ing the first 12 weeks of preg­nancy, which is often referred to as the first tri­mester. The main symp­tom of a mis­car­riage is vaginal bleeding.

How com­mon are miscarriages?

Mis­car­riages are much more com­mon than most people real­ise. This may be because many women who have had a mis­car­riage prefer not to talk about it.

An estim­ated 20% of preg­nan­cies end in mis­car­riage, although the fig­ure could be sig­ni­fic­antly higher because many mis­car­riages are thought to occur before a woman real­ises that she is pregnant.

It is thought that most mis­car­riages are the res­ult of ran­dom vari­ations in the chro­mo­somes of the baby. Chro­mo­somes are genetic ‘build­ing blocks’ that guide the devel­op­ment of a baby. If a baby has too many or not enough chro­mo­somes, the preg­nancy can end in miscarriage.

While a mis­car­riage does not usu­ally ser­i­ously affect a woman’s phys­ical health, it can have a sig­ni­fic­ant emo­tional impact. Many couples exper­i­ence feel­ings of loss and grief.

For most women, a mis­car­riage is a one-off event (known as a sporadic mis­car­riage) and they go on to have a suc­cess­ful preg­nancy in the future.

Recur­rent mis­car­riages (the loss of three or more preg­nan­cies in a row) are uncom­mon and affect 1% of all couples. Even in the case of recur­rent mis­car­riages, an estim­ated 75% of women go on to have a suc­cess­ful preg­nancy in the future.

Symp­toms of miscarriage 

The most com­mon symp­tom of mis­car­riage is vaginal bleed­ing, which can vary from light spot­ting to heavy bleed­ing. It is import­ant to real­ise that light vaginal bleed­ing is com­mon dur­ing the first tri­mester of preg­nancy, so hav­ing this symp­tom does not neces­sar­ily mean that you have had a miscarriage.

Other symp­toms of a mis­car­riage include:

• cramp­ing and pain in your lower abdomen,
• a dis­charge of fluid and/or tis­sue from your vagina, and
• no longer exper­i­en­cing the symp­toms of preg­nancy, such as nausea and breast tenderness.

When to seek med­ical help

See your doc­tor if you exper­i­ence vaginal bleed­ing and/or discharge. These symp­toms do not auto­mat­ic­ally mean that you have had a mis­car­riage, but they should always be investigated.

When to seek urgent med­ical help

On rare occa­sions, mis­car­riages hap­pen because the preg­nancy devel­ops out­side the womb. This is known as an ectopic preg­nancy. Ectopic preg­nan­cies are poten­tially ser­i­ous because there is a risk that you could exper­i­ence internal bleeding.

Symp­toms of an ectopic preg­nancy include:

• heavy vaginal bleed­ing (soak­ing more than one san­it­ary pad every hour),
• per­sist­ent and severe abdom­inal pain,
• pain in your shoulder tip, and
• feel­ing very faint and light-headed.

If you exper­i­ence any of the symp­toms above, visit your local acci­dent and emer­gency (A&E) depart­ment immediately