There’s a certain glowing beauty about a woman who is with child. It’s a precious time of choosing names and decorating nurseries, but more than that, it is a time in a woman’s life that is filled with excitement and joy.  With all of the challenging bodily changes you’re experiencing and every developmental milestone occurring to the life growing inside of you, it can be a frightening experience to believe that your pregnancy is progressing any less than perfect.  Unfortunately, sometimes things can go very wrong, and although there is no exact way to prepare for the pain, you can be aware of warning signs of complications and find ways to move past especially difficult circumstances.

Miscarriages can generally be described as a spontaneous termination of pregnancy.  Miscarriages affects up to 25 percent of all women and typically happen between four and six weeks.  Miscarriages can happen for a variety of reasons including fetal abnormalities or the egg attaching in the wrong area in the first place.  Recent studies have shown that many miscarriages that occur early can in no way be prevented by the mother.

Miscarriages can occur between the fourth and sixth months of pregnancy and are usually caused by abnormalities present within the mother such as chronic illnesses like lupus, diabetes, fibroids, or the abuse of nicotine, alcohol or other harmful substances.  Symptoms of a miscarriage include moderate or severe spotting within the early weeks of pregnancy, severe abdominal pain, passing anything that resembles tissue during your pregnancy or the sudden absence of pregnancy symptoms like nausea or breast tenderness.  Trust your intuition; you know your body best and if you have the slightest suspicion that anything isn’t quite right, you should seek medical treatment.