How To Handle Miscarriage -3 (The Course and Symptoms of Miscarriage)

The cause of a miscarriage or abortion is much the same as an ordinary labor at term. Whatever interrupts the pregnancy causes the death of the fetus. The dead fetus acts as a foreign body and excites the womb to contract as it does during an ordinary confinement. The contractions open up the mouth of the womb and the fetus is expelled together with its membranes and after-birth.

The significant and the most important symptom of a miscarriage or abortion is hemorrhage or bleeding from the privates. The flow of blood may not amount to much or it may be excessive and alarming; it may not be constant, it may come from time to time in the form of clots.

The next significant and important symptom of miscarriage or abortion is pain. The pain, like the flow of blood, may be only slight or it may be very severe, sometimes it is absent in very early miscarriage. As a rule the pain is severe when the miscarriage occurs after pregnancy has lasted for a number of months.

A miscarriage or abortion is said to be "complete" when the fetus with its membranes and after-birth is expelled clean and whole, or in other words when the womb empties itself completely. A miscarriage or abortion is said to be "incomplete" when some part of the embryo is left in the womb.