First of all, I would like to say that I will make every effort to be very sensitive about such a painful subject. I myself have spontaneously miscarried twice, once just days after finding out I was pregnant, and once around 8 or 10 weeks. The second time, I actually passed a little sac with the baby and all, and it was heartbreaking. I understand the heart of a mom who has suffered miscarriage, and I am in no way trying to be insensitive. I did not need a D&C either time, and suffered no ill after-effects.
This subject has weighed on my mind since a young lady (an old school acquaintance of my husband) contacted me through my blog to ask my advice. She had been told by her doctor that she had a blighted ovum, and needed a D&C. Her question was whether I would recommend the procedure or not.
Ever since then, I have wanted to share the information I found on my blog here, because I think this affects many women. Every time I set out to write about it, someone would write to me saying they either were having or just had a miscarriage, asking for my advice and/or prayers. I receive about a dozen emails a day from readers all over the world asking me all sorts of things, but the last thing I wanted was for them to think I was singling them out and addressing them indirectly through a blog post. Nothing could be further from the truth. My goal with this post is simply to present information so that women who find themselves in this situation in the future can make their own, informed decisions.
Before I responded to my husband's childhood friend, I spent several hours that night researching the subject on the internet. What I found was shocking. I had never been in favor of routinely performing D&Cs after miscarriage. A friend of mine once was thought to have miscarried, because she was early on and had a period just a few days after finding out she was pregnant. She was told by the doctor that there was no heart beat and that she needed a D&C because her body was not naturally expelling the baby, but she waited for weeks for it to happen naturally, thinking her baby was dead that whole time. Lo and behold, weeks later it was found out that she was still pregnant, and the baby is now a healthy 4 year old.
When faced with a miscarriage, a woman has three choices, called expectant management, medical management, and surgical management. Expectant management means the mother does nothing and waits for her body to spontaneously expel the baby, which in very rare cases could take weeks. Medical management is taking certain drugs to induce labor and/or cause the shedding of the uterine lining (these are higher doses of the same drugs as "morning after"pills and birth control pills). Surgical management is usually carrying out a D&C - the cervix is mechanically dilated and the womb scraped out. It is the same procedure as early abortion. In cases of an ectopic pregnancy, sometimes the fallopian tube is surgically removed.
Even in cases of absolutely certain miscarriage, a routine D&C is dangerous business. It could lead to severe complications such as a punctured uterus, but even when it goes well, the uterine lining will have been stripped to the point where another pregnancy is not safe for several months following, after the uterus has had a chance to build a layer thick enough to sustain a new pregnancy. Unless the mother has a fever and is showing signs of infection, or is losing dangerous amounts of blood, there is no reason to do a D&C, and it is only every risky. Of course, doctor use fear to try to push this procedure, as they do with most anything relating to obstetrics. There just isn't a whole lot of work or money in doing things naturally.
That aside, I do not believe that most cases of miscarriage are really "absolutely certain". During the first trimester, no ultrasound or doppler can ever with 100% certainty say that the baby has died based on the fact that no heart beat was detected. A much more reliable test would be to check the mother's hcg levels twice within a span of several days, and see if the levels have dropped (which would indicate a miscarriage).
What I found so shocking in my research into this subject is how many times women are wrongly diagnosed with a blighted ovum. Sometimes, it is just because the person doing the exam does not know how to use the equipment very well, the dates are off, or the woman has a tilted uterus (this is very common), all of which could lead to there being "no heart beat". In other cases, doctors are simply misinformed, such as telling a woman that a blighted ovum means she was never really pregnant and there never was a baby, when in reality there was a fertilized ovum, but for whatever reason it did not survive. This may seem like an insignificant detail, but for Bible believing Christians it means that they had a child whom they will meet when they get to Heaven.
In fact, there is a whole website dedicated to this subject,
The Misdiagnosed Miscarriage. There is much great information, and stories of women who were diagnosed wrongly.
I am sure that most women are diagnosed correctly. Nevertheless, I have felt greatly urged to share this information. If your feelings were hurt or you are upset by this post, I sincerely apologize. Every mother who has miscarried struggles with guilt and the question "Did I do anything to cause this?" The last thing I want to do is contribute to that. At the end of the day, all any of us can do is try our best, to the best of our knowledge.
Miriam, my beautiful daughter and enthusiastic kitchen helper, made apple pie with me last week. Can you guess which one is hers and which one is mine? She thought the apples were added after the crust was baked, and was a little disappointed when she realized her mistake. Becky and the boys were happy to eat her "lattice top" though, so she was happy with it after all.
