Bleeding during miscarriage can appear brown and resemble coffee grounds. Or it can be pink to bright red. It can alternate between light and heavy or even stop temporarily before starting up again. If you miscarry before you're eight weeks pregnant, it might look the same as a heavy period.
The most common sign of miscarriage is vaginal bleeding.
The bleeding may come and go over several days. However, light vaginal bleeding is relatively common during the first trimester (first 3 months) of pregnancy and does not necessarily mean you're having a miscarriage.
Miscarriage symptoms
But no matter how fast it happens, key symptoms include: Pink, red or brown vaginal bleeding or spotting. Cramps or pain in the lower abdomen. Passing tissue or blood clots from the vagina.
The tissue you pass may look dark red and shiny — some women describe it as looking like liver. You might find a sac with an embryo inside, about the size of a small bean. If you look closely, you might be able to see where the eyes, arms and legs were forming.
You know how long and heavy your typical period is. During a miscarriage, bleeding gets heavier and lasts longer than a period. As your cervix starts to dilate, cramping may become more painful than typical period cramping.
Bleeding during miscarriage can appear brown and resemble coffee grounds. Or it can be pink to bright red. It can alternate between light and heavy or even stop temporarily before starting up again. If you miscarry before you're eight weeks pregnant, it might look the same as a heavy period.
A woman early in her pregnancy may have a miscarriage and only experience bleeding and cramping for a few hours. But another woman may have miscarriage bleeding for up to a week. The bleeding can be heavy with clots, but it slowly tapers off over days before stopping, usually within two weeks.
The term refers to a pregnancy in which there is some level of bleeding, but the cervix remains closed and the ultrasound shows that the baby's heart is still beating.
It can be light pink or red, brown or black and grainy, or even look just like a normal period. If the loss occurs early in your pregnancy, there may be minimal clotting, but the farther the pregnancy has progressed, clots might be denser and larger and you might notice tissue that you don't normally see with a period.
Inevitable miscarriages can come after a threatened miscarriage or without warning. There is usually a lot more vaginal bleeding and strong lower stomach cramps. During the miscarriage your cervix opens and the developing fetus will come away in the bleeding.
See a Doctor to Confirm
If you are having miscarriage symptoms and want an answer on whether your pregnancy is viable, don't rely on a home pregnancy test. See a doctor instead. Even in women with a confirmed miscarriage, a pregnancy test may show a positive result for up to a month afterward.
During the miscarriage, you may bleed heavily with large clots, soaking a pad every 10-20 minutes. The cramping may be significant. Tylenol and a heating pad are okay to use at this time. You should call the office or the on-call doctor if the heavy bleeding does not improve after two hours.
It is possible you may not be able to get a confirmed diagnosis that you've miscarried during a single doctor's visit. A doctor can test for a miscarriage by testing for the pregnancy hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) in your blood.
Blood clots can vary in size from person to person. There can be a lot of small clots and heavy bleeding. However, many women pass clots varying in size from the size of a 50p piece, a golf ball, or even a few clots the size of a tennis ball.
If you experience heavy bleeding with clots and crampy pain, it is likely that you are having a miscarriage. The bleeding, clots and pain will usually settle when most of the pregnancy tissue has been passed. Sometimes the bleeding will continue to be heavy and you may need further treatment.
Waiting for treatment
You should go to your nearest emergency department if you have: increased bleeding, for instance soaking two pads per hour and/or passing golf ball sized clots. severe abdominal pain or shoulder pain. fever or chills.
Pregnancy losses do not always involve bleeding. In fact, a woman may not experience any symptoms and only learn of the loss only when a doctor cannot detect a heartbeat during a routine ultrasound. Bleeding during pregnancy loss occurs when the uterus empties.
The most conclusive way of finding out is to have an ultrasound done by your doctor or midwife to see baby's heartbeat. I say "most" conclusive, because even with an ultrasound, if you are early in your pregnancy, it can be difficult to see or detect a heartbeat with 100% accuracy.
Not all miscarriages are physically painful, but most people have cramping. The cramps are really strong for some people, and light for others (like a period or less). It's also common to have vaginal bleeding and to pass large blood clots up to the size of a lemon.
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.
Call your doctor or midwife right away if you have symptoms of a miscarriage. Getting medical advice and care can lower your chance of any problems from the miscarriage. Your doctor or midwife will check to see if you: Might be losing too much blood or getting an infection.
While excessive stress isn't good for your overall health, there's no evidence that stress results in miscarriage. About 10% to 20% of known pregnancies end in miscarriage. But the actual number is likely higher because many miscarriages occur before the pregnancy is recognized.
Miscarriage, also called spontaneous abortion or pregnancy loss, at five weeks may often go unnoticed. When present, symptoms are often nonspecific and may feel like a heavier period, including: Vaginal bleeding or spotting. Abdominal pain and cramps.
Since your uterus is mostly a muscle, these contractions feel like muscle cramps (in other words, they hurt). You'll usually feel these cramps on both sides of your lower abdomen or pelvic region. The cramps may come and go in waves or your pain may feel more constant.