VANCOUVER -- Many if not most women will experience a miscarriage during their reproductive life. In fact, one out of every five or six pregnancies end in miscarriage, and for women over 40, that number is much higher at 40 percent. Yet many women are shocked when it happens to them. That's why some are calling on health professionals to be more upfront about pregnancy loss.
Linda Layne was 13 weeks into first pregnancy when she miscarried, alone in a hospital, with an unfamiliar doctor. She says, "it was one of the worst experiences of my life and one of the most confusing experiences."
Linda explains, "my first feeling was I've done something wrong. I must have done something to cause this, and I'm a failure. It didn't occur to me that something this important could just simply go wrong."
The experience prompted Linda, an anthropology professor, to write a book and produce a television program to enlighten women about pregnancy loss.
Linda says, "there are accounts that describe the natural history of a pregnancy loss...what six week loss looks like."
Denise Cote-Arsenault, RN, PHD and Nurse Researcher, says, "in early losses, it might be like having a period, there might be some cramping and you pass tissue, tissue doesn't look like a baby...as it gets larger across pregancy, like labour."
At BC Women's Health Centre, there is a program to help women cope with multiple miscarriages and late pregnancy loss, the clinic also runs tests to find out why pregnancies aren't carried to term.
Dr. Stephanie Rhone says, "we find a cause for about 60-percent of our couples that we see. About 40-percent of our couples have unexplained recurrent loss, either because of bad luck, random losses or because there's something underlying. We haven't been able to discover yet or don't know how to test for."
Many problems are treatable, and at least 50 percent of women who miscarry, do go get pregnant again. Researchers are now looking at how the worry of pregnancy loss might affect the child's development.
Denise Cote-Arsenault, RN\Nurse Researcher, says, "Some of the latest research is showing that if you do have increased stress hormones during pregnancy that see results up to 14 years of age, because parent differently, children differently, when they're afraid of losing them."
Linda now has two sons, one of them adopted. She wants women to be better informed about pregnancy loss.
"I'd like women to be told about frequency of pregnancy loss at their first prenatal visit, not to scare them but to prepare them because it's such a common occurrence."
There are plans to have a rapid access clinic set up at BC Women's Health Centre, so women in their first trimester can go in for ultrasounds and checks if they do have concerns or problems. And that's really important, because many miscarriages take place in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
Monday April 17, 2006
