What kinds of things can cause a miscarriage?

Lots of women who are pregnant or want to become pregnant or want to be NOT pregnant wonder about this question. If women COULD cause a miscarriage, they would have been doing it all thru the ages to get rid of unwanted babies .... and this just is not the case. Women all thru time have tried various home remedies to cause an abortion, but this is typically pretty difficult to do on your own without hurting yourself!

Typically, early miscarriages happen for unknown reasons, and are NOT due to anything the mother did. Often, they happen because the fetus (the growing baby) has genetic defects, but sometimes the medical folks just do not know why a miscarriage happents.

The most common cause of miscarriage is genetic (or chromosone) defects in the baby. This means that the baby was not developing properly and would have had severe problems with abnormalities after birth. According to people who do research on these things, lots of women have what they thought was a late period, but really was a very early miscarriage.

Some women miscarry repeatedly, but some eventually can go on to have a normal pregnancy, too. Sometimes if a woman has had a number of miscarriages, she and the father can go thru genetic testing to try to determine if anything hereditary could be causing the miscarriages, and what might be done about it.

A woman who has RH negative (Rh-) blood type, when the baby has RH positive (Rh+) blood can have a higher risk of miscarriage in the pregnancies AFTER the first one. This is caused by the woman's blood building antibodies to fight against the "intruder" -- the baby! This is why it's SO IMPORTANT for every woman who has Rh- blood to get a Rhogam shot RIGHT after EVERY ABORTION, MISCARRIAGE, OR NORMAL ENDING OF PREGNANCY by giving birth. Rhogam stops the blood from building up these fighting antibodies. This Rh- factor problem only affects pregnancy after the very first pregnancy, no matter how that pregnancy ended (birth, miscarriage, or abortion.)

A bad accident (like a car accident, a long fall, or getting beat up badly) that causes a woman to get punched in the stomach area MIGHT cause a miscarriage; the same could happen if a woman is shot in the stomach and the bullet goes thru the uterus. That bullet might kill the baby OR cause bleeding inside the mom.

Late in the pregnancy, the common reasons for having a miscarriage relate to the mom, rather than to the baby. These include such things as the mom becoming quite ill with a serious disease, like rubella ("German measles"), lupus, uncontrolled high blood pressure, out-of-control cancer, uncontrolled kidney or liver disease, etc.

Also, if the woman has diabetes before she gets pregnant, and her blood sugar isn't controlled really well, this might cause a miscarriage. Having diabetes automatically puts the woman in a higher-risk pregnancy category, no matter what condition she's in.

Sometimes the woman does not have a good hormone balance. This also could cause a loss of pregnancy.

An older woman (35 and older) also has a higher chance of miscarriage.

Finally, late in the pregnancy, problems could develop with the phsical parts of the woman: with the uterus (womb), the cervix (opening to the womb), or the placenta (which attaches to BOTH the baby AND to the inside of the uterus, and nourishes the baby and provides blood circulation.)

Not very often, labor could start and the baby be born too early, if the cervix is [what is called] "incompetent" -- in other words, weak. This means that, for unknown reasons, the cervix does not stay closed as it should, near the end of pregnancy.

If the health care provider is seeing upon examination that the cervix is thinning out or opening up too early, then she will advise the mom to avoid sex -- the activity and the contractions of the area during a climax could cause further disturbance in the cervix. We certainly don't want the baby to be born too soon. But, this is not a super common condition, and most women who feel up to it can safely have sex as late in the pregnancy as they want to.

a good article to read, with lots more information, is here:

http://www.healthsquare.com/fgwh/wh1ch27p3.htm

Hope this helps!

kathy, RN/MSN

My sister had a miscarriage due to her blood type it had something to do with her being Rh- now she has to get a shot so her body wont attack the fetus if she gets pregnant.

i had a miscarriage about 2 years ago, do that mean I'm more likely to have another one?

go to this website....www.sisterzeus.com it tell you what to prevent and how to cause a misscarage give a lot information.good luck:)

One cause of miscarriages is talked about in this article.

http://www.tribune.com.ng/08012007/hlt1.html

The woman's age can have something to do with it.

this info was a little helpfule....i also am still wondernig why....i have two very healthful children..i would like to have at least two more...but after my miscarriage i am very scared....what if it happens again..i just don';t know if we can go thru that kind of loss again...very hard to get over

Foods, drugs (prescription and OTC), alcohol, stress, abuse, vitamin and mineral deficiencies and probably a bunch of other things.

I'm 17 weeks pregnant I'm having back pain and I dropped a quarter size blood cloth looking like tissue is this a sign of a miscarriage ?

I had a m/c 1 week ago, i was 11 weeks but the reconed it stoped growing about 6 weeks, i have 3 children already and peoples reactions were 'well you,ve already go 3' which makes me angry this was my baby, a baby i really wanted, am heartbroken but terified this will happen 2 me again, any advice?x

if i was tripped and nearly fell can that cause a miscarriage i'm 4 months pregnant

i tripped and hit my foot pretty badly can that cause a miscarriage???

can drinking cause a miscarrage

There are some reasons why a women may have a miscarriage...while some miscarriages are unexplainable.std rh blood type or stress or a nasty fall.I had a failed pregnancy about a month ago.I was seven weeks.