There is a chance you may see your baby in the tissue that you pass, but often the baby is too small to recognise, or may not be found at all. It is normal to want to look at the remains, but you may decide you do not want to. There is no right or wrong thing to do. Some women miscarry while on the toilet.
Burial or cremations
Although there is no legal requirement to have a burial or cremation, some hospitals offer burials or cremations for miscarried babies. Sometimes a number of babies are buried or cremated together.
Often, some of the pregnancy tissue remains in the uterus after a miscarriage. If it is not removed by scraping the uterus with a curette (a spoon-shaped instrument), you may bleed for a long time or develop an infection.
What Does Miscarriage Blood Look Like? Bleeding that occurs during a miscarriage doesn't always look the same. It can be light pink or red, brown or black and grainy, or even look just like a normal period.
You might want to simply flush the toilet – many people do that automatically. If you prefer to dispose of the remains the way you normally dispose of sanitary waste this is a personal choice and there are no regulations to prevent you doing whatever feels right for you.
The pregnancy tissue may look like large blood clots, or it may look white or gray. It does not look like a baby. The process can be painful, and ob-gyns may prescribe medication to help with this discomfort. Your ob-gyn may also suggest over-the-counter pain medication.
No sex, tampons, or douching for 2 weeks.
We recommend waiting until after 2 normal periods to attempt pregnancy again. You may feel that sex will never be the same due to fatigue, physical discomfort, or anxiety. You should tell your partner how you feel.
In a miscarriage that happens beyond 6 weeks, more tissue will be expelled. The expelled tissue usually resemble large blood clots. Depending on the point at which the pregnancy stopped developing, the expelled tissue could range in size from as small as a pea to as big or bigger than an orange.
Bleeding
In addition to the shedding of the uterine walls, miscarriage at 5 weeks will also comprise of the pregnancy tissues. As such, the bleeding is normally heavier than a period. At this time, the embryo is not yet developed and no recognizable tissue will be passed along with the blood.
If it is an incomplete miscarriage (where some but not all pregnancy tissue has passed) it will often happen within days, but for a missed miscarriage (where the fetus or embryo has stopped growing but no tissue has passed) it might take as long as three to four weeks.
Most miscarriages - 8 out of 10 (80 percent) - happen in the first trimester before the 12th week of pregnancy. Miscarriage in the second trimester (between 13 and 19 weeks) happens in 1 to 5 in 100 (1 to 5 percent) pregnancies. Pregnancy loss that happens after 20 weeks is called stillbirth.
If your doctor or midwife is sure that your first-trimester or early second-trimester miscarriage is complete and all tissue has passed from your uterus, the bleeding is likely to taper off within about a week. Unless you have a fever or heavy bleeding, you will not need treatment.
Guidance from the Royal College of Nursing advises that hospitals should offer parents the option of arranging individual or shared cremation or burial of pregnancy remains, usually paid for by the Trust; or, if parents prefer, the option of taking the baby's remains home and making private arrangements.
If it's a miscarriage, your symptoms may end quickly or last for several hours. The cramps are really strong for some people, and really light for others. The bleeding can be heavy, and you can pass large blood clots up to the size of a lemon.
The discomfort varies in intensity; for some women it is quite mild while for others it is very painful, especially at the time when the bulk of the pregnancy tissue is passed. The painkillers will help with this. Usually, you will not pass anything that is recognisable as a pregnancy.
The earlier a miscarriage happens, the less likely you are to see fetal or placental tissue. If you are less than 8 weeks pregnant, any tissue expelled will appear like heavy menstrual bleeding. After this stage of early pregnancy, there may be firm or lumpy looking tissue which is the placenta and fetus.
At 6 weeks
Most women can't see anything recognisable when they have a miscarriage at this time. During the bleeding, you may see clots with a small sac filled with fluid. The embryo, which is about the size of the fingernail on your little finger, and a placenta might be seen inside the sac.
The clots and tissue passed during a pregnancy loss may look like typical period clots, or they may be larger. Pregnancy loss tissue includes: the fetus or embryo.
In a very early miscarriage, the miscarriage will look and feel physically like a heavy, cramping menstrual period, possibly with more clots than usual and a slightly longer bleeding time.
In the past, women who miscarried were told to wait 2 to 3 months. Today the thinking has changed, since several studies show no increased risk with shorter intervals between pregnancies.
Hydration, good nutrition, light exercise, and sleep will help the body heal. Consider trying a new physical activity that brings you joy or allows for an emotional release, such as boxing.
If you think you have passed any pregnancy tissue it is useful to keep it to show to a health professional, you can wrap it in a sanitary pad. If you think you have passed some tissue into the toilet you do not need to retrieve it.