Spontaneous Abortion

Most pregnancies go about in a completely normal way. However approximately one out of every five end up in early abortion and many times before the woman has even realized she was pregnant. If the abortion occurs at the beginning of the pregnancy, it might be confused with a regular period. Around half of the time abortions are caused by abnormalities of the chromosomes of the embryo. In another twenty percent of the cases, the embryo might have structural defects that are too small to be detected through tests.

An abortion can cause cramping and bleeding. You might feel an abdominal pain that is stronger than period cramps, and you might expulse fetal tissue or the placenta. In the cases where there is the presence of fetal tissue, the doctor does not need to do anything else. Many times however, there is some tissue left inside of the uterus and it is possible the woman may need to get a procedure that

is called DNC. With the help of surgical instruments, the doctor will dilate the cervix, opens it carefully, and then empties out what is left in the uterus with an apparatus that sucks or by scraping the uterus. This procedure is sometimes done in the doctors office or in a surgery room depending on what the doctor decides, as well as how far along the woman was pregnant, the stage of the pregnancy etc.

In some cases there is not any evident sign of abortion. The doctor might discover in a prenatal visit that the fetus is no longer alive. If this happens at the very beginning of the pregnancy, it may not be necessary to do a DNC. However, if this happens at the end of the first three months it is possible the doctor will need to do a complete expulsion of tissue in order to reduce the possibility of abundant bleeding. Depending on your obstetric history and you desire to find out what caused the abortion, you can ask for an genetic analysis of the tissue to find out if the chromosomes were normal or abnormal. Half of the abortions that occur are due to abnormalities of the chromosomes and it can be useful to investigate the cause.

Sadly, most abortion cannot be prevented. A lot of them are simply the way nature handles an abnormal pregnancy. However, having an abortion does not mean that you cannot have a normal pregnancy afterwards. In fact, many women that have had consecutive abortions, the probabilities of the next pregnancy are high, even without any special treatment.

Women that go through two or three abortions might have a base condition that is possible to identify and treat. If this happens you should get a complete medical exam and do special test to determine the cause. There are women that want to get tested even after one abortion. If you have a spontaneous abortion, talk to your doctor about the possibility of getting some tests done, or of sending fetal tissue or the placenta to a laboratory for a chromosome analysis.

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