The symptoms of miscarriage are also symptoms of other problems in pregnancy. Many women may bleed a little ,even a lot and experience cramps-the symptoms of miscarriage –and yet still go on to have a perfectly healthy baby.
Women who have bleeding enough to be seen by the doctor 50-60 per cent will miscarry. So when you first get some indication that pregnancy may be going wrong, you will not know if you are going to miscarry or not - a phase of uncertainty is common for many women and this contributes to the stress and anxiety you may feel.
Often there is also a phase of thinking miscarriage might happen but not knowing if it will happen or ignoring the symptoms in a hope that they will go away .It may be only after the miscarriage happens that you fully realise the pregnancy has ended.
Women who miscarry may usually have some previous warning .Depending on how advanced the pregnancy is, there are a number of signs and symptoms: vaginal bleeding, pelvic pain, no longer feel the symptoms of pregnancy and cessation of foetal moment or heartbeat.
Your body can play tricks on you, if you ignore the symptoms or misinterpret the signs, you will continue to believe that pregnancy will be successful long after it is clear that you have miscarried.
Women should see the doctor to confirm, either by clinical assessment or with the ultrasound scans, whether the pregnancy has ended or not. Sometimes a pregnancy can come to an end with little or no indication that anything is wrong. This is called a ‘missed abortion’.
Many women due to inadequate warning signs, the possibility of miscarriage may never occur until they had a routine scan in the clinic.
Every miscarriage is unique but is characterized by the pattern of bleeding, cramps, and pain and the nature of the loss: blood clots and tissues, an embryo, foetus or baby. Even if two women have same symptoms it is unlikely that they will experience the same way.
It is thought that 50-60 per cent of early miscarriages are due to chromosomal abnormalities.
So things can go wrong during or after conception. But majority of the women will be successful in their next pregnancy.
When women are miscarrying, they need to be physically looked after with good nursing and medical care that contributes to the feeling of being well cared for.
Medically and non-medically the care has to be excellent for the women who miscarry. It is the responsibility of the health professionals to help them understand what was going on and what has happened and to prepare them what might happen next.
And doctors should also help the women who miscarried to understand about their future pregnancy, when to try again, preconception care and antenatal care and reassured about the future pregnancy.