Understanding Miscarriage
 Miscarriage can be a difficult thing to deal with, particularly if you're left in the dark as to why it happened and wondering whether it will happen again. Here, we outline the most common causes of miscarriage.
What Is A Miscarriage?
A miscarriage is the name given to a foetus aborting before the 24th week. Later than this, it is termed a 'still birth'. More than one in five pregnancies end in a miscarriage - that's almost 250,000 every year in the UK alone.
What Are The Symptoms?
For many women, the first indication is vaginal bleeding or discharge, sometimes accompanied by abdominal pain or backache that feel like period pains. Other women may have no indication that something is wrong, but discover that their pregnancy has ended only during a routine antenatal scan. This is called a missed or delayed miscarriage.
Why Does It Happen?
Almost half of all early miscarriages (up to 14 weeks) occur because of foetal abnormalities. Miscarriages can also occur because of problems in the uterus such as fibroids or hormonal imbalance, or in one per cent of cases, cervical incompetence. This is when the cervix doesn’t remain tightly shut.
Occasionally miscarriage is brought on because of blood incompatibility between you and the father which triggers your body to produce antibodies which attack the foetus. Often the cause remains a mystery.
Will It Happen Again?
In the majority of cases, women who have had a miscarriage will go on again to have a healthy pregnancy. Even after several miscarriages, women can become pregnant and give birth without further medical attention.
Recurrent Miscarriage
If however, you have had three or more miscarriages you should be offered investigations and, possibly, treatment. At this stage an underlying cause is more likely to be found, although a treatment for this may not be available.
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