How To Handle Miscarriage -1

By the term "miscarriage" we mean that for some reason the progress of pregnancy has been interrupted and the fetus is expelled from the womb.

A miscarriage or abortion (both terms meaning the same - the difference between the two terms is a technical one and need not concern us here) can occur any time after conception up to approximately the seventh month, when, if labor takes place, the child may be born alive. The condition would then be termed a premature labor. A miscarriage or abortion is an immature labor and implies an immature or dead child.

Miscarriage is a serious issue no matter whether it is attended with grave symptoms or apparently no symptoms. If it occurs shortly after conception, during the first few months of married life it is serious, if not in its physical consequences, it is in its significance, because it establishes the tendency to miscarry, - a tendency that may result in great mental distress because of the worry and fear it engenders, and of sorrow and heartache because it may blast the hope of parentage.

Such a miscarriage may take place at once after conception. If so, the following menstruation may be delayed for a week or so and is then a little more profuse than is customary. This will be the only indication that a life has been sacrificed that the young wife may have, and frequently the significance of such an occurrence is never understood, yet the tendency to miscarry is nevertheless established, and a seeming sterility is apparently the fate of the woman.

It is, therefore, of the greatest importance that extreme care should be taken to bring the first pregnancy to a successful consummation. A young wife should realize that she is apt to become pregnant at any time. Her conduct therefore should be such at least as not to harm the life principle with which she has been entrusted. To this end any excessive sexual activity should be strictly avoided.