Signs Of A Silent Pregnancy Loss – Not All Miscarriages Bleed

Signs Of A Silent Pregnancy Loss  – Since pregnancy is a time of rapid bodily changes, it becomes harder to detect a missed miscarriage owing to its silent nature

Every year, many families in India and globally get scarred by miscarriage. It has been defined as the loss of baby before the 20^th week of pregnancy. Some experts also call it spontaneous abortion. Like any other loss of life, the experience can be emotionally devastating for the mother and family concerned. Cinema has stereotyped the biological phenomenon to the extent that many of us can’t imagine miscarriage without some bleeding. Though bleeding is often the common symptom of miscarriage but sometimes it can happen without bleeding as well.

Pregnancy loss does not always show up as bleeding. Sometimes it can go unnoticed and might only get detected when you go for a routine prenatal checkup. It usually gets spotted when the fetus appears to be too small for the stage or if the doctor can’t hear the heartbeat. As per experts, a woman is more likely to experience bleeding during miscarriage when the uterus empties the fetus but sometimes the womb might not empty the dead fetus. In such scenario, a woman might not experience bleeding.

Symptoms of a missed or silent miscarriage

Silent miscarriages hurt the most because the parents are not expecting it in the least. Some miscarriages announce themselves with prominent signs and symptoms. Others might happen silently with hardly external signs. Miscarriages are always a risk in early weeks of pregnancy. Since pregnancy is a time of rapid bodily changes, it becomes harder to detect a missed miscarriage owing to its silent nature. The following might be some symptoms other than bleeding and cramps-

1. a sudden decrease in pregnancy symptoms
2. a pregnancy test that tests negative
3. nausea, vomiting or diarrhea
4. Brownish or white-pinkish vaginal discharge
5. Severe abdominal pain
6. Unexplained weakness

How it can trick expecting mothers

Miscarriages are very common in early weeks of pregnancy when the fetal movement is not that prominent. Also, the pregnancy hormones might still be high in your system and a woman might keep experiencing pregnancy symptoms such as breast tenderness and nausea. As per reports, sometimes you might continue to test positive for pregnancy. These signs make it difficult for woman to feel that something might be wrong.

How will you get to know about it?

A missed miscarriage is most likely to be detected by your attending doctor when you might go for a routine checkup. Your doctor might first spot it in a routine ultrasound. They might see the fetus not growing as fast it should be or too small for that stage. Sometimes your healthcare provider might not hear a heartbeat. Sometimes the fetus will be seen inside the amniotic sac but sometimes the doctor might not see the sac at all. Your health expert might also get you checked for human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) levels, the same hormone which is used as a test mark of pregnancy. If your health expert might find all the red flags, then they might declare it as a case of missed miscarriage.

What to do next?

The stage at which you lost the baby, your health status and your personal preference as a patient will decide the future course of treatment. There are three common directions in which the treatment might go-

1. Going for natural miscarriage to happen without any medical intervention
2. Inducing miscarriage using medicines
3. Going for a surgical procedure to remove the deceased fetus. Signs Of A Silent Pregnancy Loss