How Miscarriages (abortions) happen (Day 3)

Abortion – How it occurs

Note that another word for miscarriage is abortion, it doesn’t mean you deliberately aborted your baby

We’ve been talking about causes of miscarriage for a while, let’s talk about how a miscarriage occurs.

Miscarriages go through 4 processes which are

1. Threatened abortion

2. Inevitable abortion

3. Incomplete abortion and

4. Complete abortion.

All these have slight differences.

Threatened Abortion

This means the baby is okay but is at risk of aborting. How can one know this is happening?

If there is any bleeding from the vagina during early pregnancy but the cervix remains closed, then a threatened abortion is suspected. This is usually without significant pain. Up to 30% of pregnant women have some bleeding in early pregnancy. Have you ever experienced this?

Inevitable Abortion

If the abortion process is not stopped at this point, it continues to the next stage which is an inevitable abortion. Just like a threatened abortion, there is also bleeding from the vagina.

It is inevitable because the cervix is now open though the baby parts are yet to start coming out. The cervix being open is the major difference between a threatened and inevitable abortion. It is important to do an ultrasound if you think your baby is aborting, it will show the true state of the baby.

Incomplete Abortion

We’ve been talking about the process of miscarriage and we’ve mentioned threatened abortion and inevitable abortion, the next process in miscarriage is an incomplete abortion. Like the other processes, there is also vaginal bleeding in incomplete abortion but unlike inevitable abortion in which the baby parts haven’t come out, in incomplete abortion, apart from the cervix being open, the woman will feel severe cramps and see the fetal tissue outside.

It is safe to say that the baby is lost at this point.

A ultrasound will still be necessary and it will show some products of conception still in the womb.

This can be very traumatic for any woman and she needs all the support she can get.

In such cases the bleeding may continue for several days, sometimes up to 3 weeks before it stops or completes. This brings us to the last stage of miscarriage

 Complete abortion.

Here all the baby parts have passed, the woman will notice that the pains have subsided and the bleeding has significantly reduced. When she goes to do a scan, nothing will be found in the womb. This is a complete abortion or miscarriage. Are you pregnant and bleeding? please go to see a doctor.

Join me tomorrow for more.

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