I am sorry and I understand. On June 18th, after several days of light spotting, mostly brown, I went in for an u/s. I was 12 weeks pregnant. The baby had died. We had seen the heartbeat at 8 weeks so we were stunned and shocked and devastated. We were offered a D&C but the thought of my baby being ripped apart was more than I could handle. We opted to go home and wait for a natural miscarriage to start. (We have been trying to get pregnant for about 8 months and had had 3 consecutive 6 week miscarriages before this pregnancy.)

Two days later, I started having cramping and bleeding and passing rather large clots. By late afternoon, I was having full on contractions. Dh and I locked ourselves in our bedroom and waited, wanting to "catch" our baby. It took a while and I was getting very weak, very faint, but I finally passed the amniotic sac, which was still intact. Dh searched gently through it to find our baby. A little while later, I passed the placenta, also mostly intact. I was very sick and bleeding profusely but no way in the world I would go to the ER. (I had a m/c in 2007 and went to the ER. I was treated horrifically. I will never do that again!)

Dh prepared our baby for burial in a lined little box and early on June 21st (6:36 am, 18 years to the minute from when our oldest was born) we buried our angel.

Two days after having the baby, I became extremely ill, lost all color, couldn't stand, etc. Dh went out and bought protein shakes, electrolyte drinks, and iron supplements. I sipped my way through what I could (still refusing to go the ER) and after about 12 hours, I managed to start my way back to the land of the living.

Tomorrow marks 3 weeks since I delivered an angel and physically, I am almost back to normal. (The whole thing caused a UTI, which I am not prone to at all, so that stunk, too!) Emotionally, I wonder if I will ever recover.

Even as hard (and at times scary) as it was, I would always opt for a natural m/c if it is at all possible. The dr also told us that a D&C can, rarely, cause future issues for fertility and carrying a pregnancy.

Very sorry for your MC, and even more so that this was not your first one. Thank you for posting your story, as I have never been able to find a detailed description of a natural miscarriage. My miscarriage started while I was traveling, and can say it was one of the worse experiences to not be home, and in some weird hospital, and to have to fly home with all this stuff going on. I had painful/intense cramping for at least 2 days and then I started bleeding. I was able to get my blood work back which confirmed my dropping hormone levels (along with the u/s) and then decided to have the DNC. I needed those few days to come to terms with the fact that it was happening and there wasn't any hope. I can say I learned from this that going to a hospital or dr that's not your own is a total waste of time, hope, and even money. My dr discouraged letting it happen naturally and pushed for a dnc or medicine I could take at home to complete the process. I choose the DNC and was back at work after one day at home. I choose the dnc because the dr said it was the best way to heal and move forward with another pregnancy. I'm not convinced that's true, but I'm not willing to believe what any dr says is true since losing my son at 34 weeks.


BBC (31)
Mommy to:
Ricky Stillborn 3.13.12 @ 34+4 wks due to Severe Pre-E. 5 lb & 1 oz. Always missed. Most beloved son.
MC at 9 weeks May 2011

I am very sorry for your loss and MC. I had two MCs and both times my doctors would have preferred to let nature take its course. However, it did not happen on it's own. My doctors needed to do D&Cs both times, as the risk of infection was too great. Both times I recovered quickly physically and was in very little pain; No woman and her situation/medical background is the same, some do better the natural way, whereas for others medical help/intervention is the only way.

Apparently I have very fast labors. My natural MC was about an hour of pain (close to labor). As soon as I passed the section that we think contained the baby I felt fine. The labor with my daughter was about 2 hours (from 2cm to delivery) and only the last 2 hours were painful. The doctor didn't want to do a D&C and preferred it happen on it's own (or possibly with Cytotec if if didn't). He sounded like D&C was his last option (and what I preferred anyway).

I am sorry for your loss and sorry for your difficult miscarriage. I agree with you that it's wrong to describe a miscarriage as a "heavy period." That may be true at 4-6 weeks gestation, but if you get much past that, it's a lot more like labor than a period.

A D&C may have been physically easier on you, but then again, maybe not. I've had two miscarriages, one D&C at 10 weeks and one natural at 9 weeks. After my D&C I was in so much pain, I was literally crawling from bed to bathroom and back for two solid weeks, blacking out and throwing up from the pain. Every doctor I talked to told me that was impossible, I was "supposed" to have been back on my feet in a couple days, and one even accused me of drug seeking. Every woman I've talked to who had D&Cs were told the couple-days recovery timeframe, but all said it was closer to two weeks, though none of them were quite as bad off as I was. My natural miscarriage, on the other hand, involved 26 hours of intense labor, and then it was done. Different women can have completely different experiences, of course, and even the same woman can have different experiences in two different MCs. I personally found my natural MC to be much easier, physically. There are times when a D&C is necessary and lifesaving, but it's not always the easier choice.

Hello everyone,

I have been around this board for a while, but I don't post very often. On Monday, we lost pregancy #3 at 9 weeks probably due to blighted ovum. I wanted to share my story b/c we opted for a natural miscarriage instead of a d&c. There is very little good info on what a natural miscarriage is like, so I hope this will help someone be prepared as I was not.

Last Wednesday, June 14, I started spotting light pink to brown. I had not had my first u/s yet. Of course, we were on vacation. I called the dr office who told me to go to the ER if spotting became red. Friday night we were at the small local med center and dr did vaginal exam b/c I had red spotting and light cramping. He said I had a 50/50 chance of having miscarriage. He did not do u/s as the sonographer had gone home and he suggested we either come back the next day or return home from vacation. I was ready to wait it out as I knew that the dr couldn't do anything. Saturday night the bleeding turned to clots the size of half dollars. We were going home Sunday morning (father's day) anyway, and I was 90 % sure that I had lost the pregnancy at this point so we chose to go on home. All along I was reading that miscarriage is like a heavy period. At this point, I still didn't have bleeding that was as heavy as my normal period, so I felt I could handle avoiding a d&c.

On Monday morning, I was scheduled for an 8:15 u/s. I knew in my heart that the tech would not find anything, but it was hard to hear her so quiet and looking so carefully on the screen. There was nothing. No baby, no sac, nothing except lots and lots of thick uterine wall. I met w/ the dr who confirmed everything and she said that I had a few options: natural miscarriage, medication to speed things along, or a d&c. So far I felt good about the process, so dh and I chose the natural course. This also gave time for the bloodwork to confirm falling hcg levels. Dr gave me a rx for 800 mg Ibuprofen to take alternately with 1000 mg of Tylenol.

Well, on Mon night it all hit the fan. Remember that all along I was prepared for a "heavy" period. At about 4 pm I started to feel really poorly. Blood started gushing and I was passing clots as large as my fist. I was uncomfortable and could not sit or lie down. I paced the floor for about 3 hours. Then, I started experiencing what I have since Found out was back labor. I have had two c/s w/ my other pregnancies, so I had never been in labor before. The pain was so strong, it literally took my breath away. It radiated up my back and down into my feet. Still blood gushing and clots. I was nauseous, had a fever w/ chills, and the medication was not touching the pain. I called to my husband (who had been putting our two kids to bed) to find some other meds for me to take. I didn't care what it was b/c I knew that there was no baby to harm. He saw my pain and amount of blood and called the dr who told him to bring me to the e/r.

I don't remember much about the e/r, b/c I ended up passing out several times from the pain. I was given fluids and IV pain meds w/ something for nausea. After the exam, the dr actually said that I was not hemorrhaging and that although the bleeding was very heavy, it was normal. We came home in the wee hours of the morning. Since then I have been on Tylenol w/ codein and an anti-nausea med. This has been bearable, but I have not had the heavy bleeding like on Mon pm and Tues am. I hope the worst is behind me. I had more bloodwork done yesterday and I return on Tues to follow up.

I hope my story helps someone who may be considering having a natural miscarriage. I believe we could have saved ourselves a trip to the ER had we been better informed. God will provide us with another child to love in his due time.