What You Can Do To Prevent Miscarriage

Miscarriage is the most tormenting experience for any expectant mother. It crystallises one big question is: why did this happen to me? Here’s a useful ‘how-to’ to taking care and averting the problem to the best extent possible.

- Kavita Nadkarni

You are pregnant, with a much-anticipated baby, your bundle of joy, and have shared the good news with your partner, or spent weeks hiding the constant nausea and crushing fatigue from colleagues. You are eagerly waiting for that ‘wobbly’ 12 weeks’ period to end, so that you can share the exciting news with everyone.

Yet, in one fell swoop, and for no real reason at all, your pregnancy suddenly goes kaput.

This could be sudden bleeding, a gnawing pain in the stomach, or you hear those painful words from your doctor “We’re sorry. We can’t see the heartbeat.” Yes, there is hardly any pain more grieving than this agony for any woman.

What is worse is that while losing a friend or relative prompts instant support network of sympathy and understanding, losing a baby only brings lonely silence.

There are many things you want to know, yet you don’t want to talk about it. If you have had such an unfortunate and distressing experience, chances are you would want to know what, perhaps, caused it, and what you can, perforce, do to prevent it from happening — oh, no not — again.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE

First of all, you should understand that you are not alone. One in four pregnancies supposedly results in miscarriage. Secondly, it is important for you to know that miscarriage did not occur because of your fault. So, do away with the misconceptions, if any, in your mind. It did not also occur because of stress at work, or personal life, or because you lifted something heavy [please consult your doctor as to ‘what’ weight one can lift during pregnancy]; it did not occur because of some argument with your spouse, or because you second-guessed whether you wanted to have a baby, or not, too.