Miscarriage
Natural support for pregnancy loss
Losing your baby
Losing your baby in early pregnancy is devastating. All of those emotions and all of those hormones suddenly with nowhere to go.
You can feel quite depressed, and friends and family can’t always offer the support you need – even if you had told them you were pregnant.
It really doesn’t help to know just how common early miscarriage is, and anyway the statistics are very confusing, but something like 10-20% of all known pregnancies end in early miscarriage, 80% of those occur in the first trimester (weeks 0-13), and some 70% of those are the result of chromosomal abnormalities.
An equal number of conceptions don’t even make it as far as a blue line on a pregnancy test. These ‘missed conceptions’ are really nature’s way of crossing out mistakes and getting ready for a healthy baby next time.
Happily, the chance of miscarrying falls rapidly through the first 12 weeks, especially once a heart beat has been detected, and by the time you move into the second trimester, the risk is down at about 1%
2nd trimester pregnancy loss is known as late miscarriage.
It’s perhaps comforting to know that if you had an early miscarriage you will almost certainly go on to have a perfectly normal pregnancy next time.
Only 1% of women suffer repeated pregnancy loss.
The risk of miscarriage rises with the age of both partners. At 20 the risk is around 15-20% by 35, around 20-35% and by your mid 40’s it’s 50% or more..
This is probably a reflection of less than perfect eggs and sperm causing chromosomal abnormalities in the fetus.
As the vast majority of miscarriages result from chromosomal abnormalities, preparing for pregnancy with diet and lifestyle changes, acupuncture and herbs may help to reduce the chances of losing your baby..
What causes early miscarriage?
By far the biggest reason for pregnancy loss in the first trimester is fetal abnormality. Every cell of your baby’s body contains DNA from both you and your partner. These genetic building blocks contain all the instructions for building a baby. Imagine how mind bogglingly complicated that is.
If there’s a tiny error in how those two strands of DNA hook up, the baby can’t develop properly and the pregnancy will come to an end.
As we get older, the DNA in our eggs and sperm are more prone to error than when we’re in our twenties, so the chances of miscarriage increase. This is the best reason for getting yourself into tip-top condition before you get pregnant.
Other things that might cause early miscarriage include hormone imbalances or an abnormality in the placenta – the fleshy ‘USB’ that connects you to your baby and through which it gets its nutrition. Why this happens, no-one knows.
External and lifestyle influences include being over or under weight, smoking, drugs, alcohol, or too much caffeine can also increase your chance of miscarrying..
In the second trimester, other things come into play, such as long term health conditions and certain infections such as STDs or rubella. Food poisoning with bacteria such as listeria, salmonella or toxoplasmosis (also carried by cats) can also cause miscarriage.
Physical influences include fibroids. PCOS and endometriosis
Signs and types of miscarriage
Miscarriage can be threatened, or inevitable and some women suffer repeat miscarriages. There is also a ‘missed’ miscarriage, when the baby has died but not miscarried.
Almost all miscarriages start with vaginal bleeding and lower abdominal or back pain. Bleeding can be heavy or light and the pain crampy to severe..
Sometimes bleeding in the first trimester can be nothing worrying but if EVER you have bleeding in pregnancy you should go to see your midwife or GP.
Can acupuncture help with miscarriage?
Sadly, nothing will prevent an inevitable miscarriage once it has started.
Acupuncture during the first trimester along with relaxation techniques can be really helpful in reducing pregnancy complications and the risk of early miscarriage.,
In addition, assuming the baby is healthy, acupuncture and herbs may be able to ward off a threatened miscarriage and help you avoid future miscarriages if you suffer from Recurrent Pregnancy Loss..
You may find this paper on acupuncture and CAM for miscarriage interesting.
In a ‘missed miscarriage’, the fetus has died without causing any symptoms, but hasn’t miscarried. Once this has been detected you can choose to wait for the miscarriage to complete naturally, take a pill to help kick-start the process or have an MVA (used to be D&C) to physically empty your womb.
If you choose to wait, acupuncture may help to speed things up, and can be helpful in ‘re-setting’ your system. Some very simple herbal teas can help re-build your energies restore your hormone balance and help you through the sadness.
Recovering from miscarriage
You probably need to recover both physically and emotionally after losing your baby. Both acupuncture and herbal medicine can help you get through what is an incredibly sad time. Acupuncture to soothe the spirit and very gentle herbal teas can re-build your energy and support your emotions.
I hope that a treatment session will also provide a safe space for you to talk about what you’re feeling.
Avoiding future miscarriages
Of course, it’s better to avoid a miscarriage than to have to deal with one. The best thing you can do is to get yourself in tip-top condition by preparing for pregnancy.
Both Western and Chinese medicine agree that our fertility declines with age. So it’s ‘important to do what you can to support your reproductive energies and slow their natural downward track.
For a woman it’s important to do what she can to protect her eggs to reduce the chances of chromosome problems, but it’s equally important to regulate the menstrual cycle to clear up any underlying problems such as hormone balances.
Remember that men are 50% of the picture. Although they constantly produce new sperm, they should do everything they can to improve the number and quality with diet and, lifestyle changes and possibly acupuncture, and herbs..
Take a look at my fertility pages to see if I could help or get in touch to find out more
