Life Begins...

Miscarriage stories of loss, hope and help. It's always devastating to experience a loss. It can cause you to feel alone, isolated. There's no 'right' way to feel - a range of reactions are possible and normal. In addition to the grief you may feel, your body will be undergoing some profound hormonal adjustments, which may make you feel very emotionally volatile. If you have had a miscarriage, take the time to understand better why these occur and why it is not your fault.

Showing posts with label recurrent miscarriage. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 06, 2016

Five Miscarriages and a Baby

Privately I've been battling my own set of personal challenges - five miscarriages and a baby...

Maggie is fast approaching two and is the joy of my life. I've had three of my five miscarriages since she was born so the struggle isn't over, but I've come to appreciate how lucky I am.

I have what so many people want but never actually get - an incredible daughter, a loving fiancé and a supportive family that have shared and absorbed my pain where they could (thank-you all).

Read more

Photo Credit: huffingtonpost.co.uk by alamy
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TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:

Image: Avoiding Miscarriage: Everything You Need To Know To Feel More Confident In Pregnancy, Publisher: Sea Change Press; illustrated edition edition (September 1, 2006)

Avoiding Miscarriage: Everything You Need To Know To Feel More Confident In Pregnancy
-- There are only four major causes of miscarriage, and targeted questionnaires help each woman clarify whether she might be at higher risk in any of these areas.

Each cause is explained thoroughly but clearly, with the information and support women need to improve their chance of future successful pregnancy. This makes the book as relevant for women who have never even been pregnant as it is for women who have experienced miscarriage.

The book presents a detailed overview of miscarriage, dispels common myths, provides flow charts to help reveal the cause of any previous unexplained loss, and offers positive, practical options for action.

It is written from the patient's perspective, drawing on sympathetic case studies to introduce each chapter and presenting complex medical research in a way that is easy to understand. The reassuring and upbeat tone inspires a positive attitude, and the book enables each woman to identify the path that is right for her based on her unique personality and circumstances.

Paperback: 250 pages
Click to order/for more info: Avoiding Miscarriage
Find it on Amazon: US | Canada | UK

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Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Recurrent miscarriage

When you have been trying to conceive for one month, one year or several years, the most joyous and happy moment that you can feel is when you see a positive home pregnancy test after missing a period. But the excitement and elation can quickly be erased by the negative news received by a doctor either over the phone or at the office, informing you that you have miscarried. A pregnancy loss or miscarriage is very heart-breaking, frustrating and devastating for any woman to go through once, let alone multiple times.

Read more: http://www.examiner.com/x-19772-NY-Pregnancy-Examiner~y2009m8d29-Recurrent-miscarriage

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Monday, August 03, 2009

Treating Unexplained Recurrent Miscarriage

Granulocyte-Colony Stimulating Factor Administration Shows Promise in Treating Unexplained Recurrent Miscarriage

Miscarriage occurs in 10%-25% of all clinically recognized pregnancies, with around <5%>

Now a randomized controlled study, published in the recent issue of Human Reproduction, reports the potential of subcutaneous administration of granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) as an effective strategy to improve the pregnancy outcome in patients with idiopathic recurrent miscarriages.

Source: http://medinewsdirect.com/?p=695

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Monday, July 13, 2009

My wife has had five miscarriages

Monty Munford and his wife Emily with their son. Photograph: Monty Munford

But we are still determined to have another child

When my wife Emily came into the sitting room and told me there was "something in the soap dish" I knew the stomach pains she had been experiencing during the eighth week of her first pregnancy had ended in a miscarriage.

Should I bring the "something" into the sitting room, discuss it with my wife and then make a decision to bury it in a beautiful location? Or should I protect my wife by flushing it down the loo? I went for the latter, enduring the worst existential moment of my life; then I tried to comfort her.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/jul/09/first-person-miscarriages-child

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Saturday, July 11, 2009

The Miscarriage Test

Tampa (myFOXla.com) - It's such a sad reality some families must face, up to fifteen percent of pregnancies end in miscarriage. Most are due to problems with the DNA. The fetus can't develop normally because of defects in the genes. But when a woman has two or three miscarriages, it may be a clue something else is very wrong. Fox's Dr. Joette Giovinco has more on a simple test that may prevent repeats from happening.

Video: http://www.myfoxla.com/dpp/health/The_Miscarriage_Test_20090710

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Saturday, June 13, 2009

Book on expressing miscarriage grief & sadness through art

“Dedicated to the many women and men who carry a quiet loss, a loss that underlies their daily affairs and permeates their dreams with memories of children who were with them too briefly.”

So begins Laura Seftel’s book, Grief Unseen: Healing Pregnancy Loss through the Arts. She wrote this book and started The Secret Club several years after her own pregnancy losses.

View the slideshow of pregnancy loss art.

Read more: http://www.examiner.com/x-7080-Anchorage-Family-Examiner~y2009m6d12-A-book-on-expressing-miscarriage-grief-and-saddness-through-art

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Wednesday, March 11, 2009

New bid to halt miscarriage misery

A unique research project aimed at helping thousands of couples avoid the misery of repeated miscarriages and other pregnancy complications has been launched by leading medical experts.

Expectant couples at five major London hospitals are to be invited to participate in the so-called "Baby Bio Bank", which will collect blood from both mothers and fathers and samples from the umbilical cord and placentas of babies as well as other detailed medical history.

Researchers hope the bank will act as a resource for major medical research projects across the world examining the causes of recurrent miscarriage, growth problems in the womb, pre-eclampsia, or high blood pressure in pregnancy, and pre-term delivery.

Professor Lesley Regan, of St Mary's Hospital in London, an international expert on recurrent miscarriage, said the four pregnancy complications targeted by the bank should not be viewed in isolation. She said they all had a link.

"I think the change in our understanding is that you don't look at them in isolation," she said.

She added: "We have done studies that have shown that the levels of psychological distress and disturbance in couples who have repeated miscarriages and lose babies is very similar to that in psychiatric hospitals. It really is an enormous burden on people."

Professor Gudrun Moore of the Institute of Child Health and an international researcher on pregnancy complications, said she hoped the bank would act as a database and the project would extend in scope.

She said: "The aim of this project is that in the long term we will save the lives of women and their babies and protect families from some of these birth disorders."

The bank is receiving more than £1 million from the Lord Mayor's Appeal 2008 and hopes to get underway at the beginning of June. The project has been created by the charity Wellbeing of Women.

Currently around 250,000 UK pregnancies end in miscarriage and more than 50% of stillbirths remain unexplained. Statistics also show that one in 13 live births in England and Wales are pre-term and 25% of premature births are caused by pre-eclampsia.

Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5gvBhZ02eGQHqXSH_4KS4YmCI9OlA

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Saturday, December 27, 2008

Two miscarriages and stillborn twins.. but Liz could not give up on being a mum

Photo by olga_salon

Liz and Alf Beard suffered years of heartache and pain as they struggled to realise their baby dream. But through it all, the couple never gave up hope

Gazing lovingly at her five-month-old son Archie, Liz Beard looks like any new mother proudly showing off her first child.

But Liz's journey to motherhood took five courses of expensive IVF over an agonising eight years and her happy smile hides the pain of two miscarriages and the tragic loss of stillborn twins.

"I'd have done anything to have Archie," says Liz, 37.

"He's proof you have to keep hoping and believing."

Liz and husband Alf's baby quest began in 2000, six months before they married in their home city of Birmingham.

Full story: http://www.mirror.co.uk/life-style/real-life/2008/12/16/two-miscarriages-and-stillborn-twins-but-liz-could-not-give-up-on-being-a-mum-115875-20975030/

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Monday, December 08, 2008

Secondhand smoke causes fertility problems: study

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Women who breathed in secondhand smoke as children or young adults were later more likely to have trouble getting pregnant and suffer more miscarriages than women not exposed to smoke, U.S. researchers reported Thursday.

They said toxins in the smoke could have permanently damaged the women's bodies, causing the later problems, and said their finding support restrictions on smoking.

Overall, 11 percent of the women reported difficulty becoming pregnant, and about a third lost one or more babies, the researchers wrote in the journal Tobacco Control.

Full story: http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4B405120081205

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Saturday, October 18, 2008

Miscarriage hurts next pregnancy

Photo by news.bbc.co.uk

Women who miscarry can go on to have successful pregnancies

Women who have had just one miscarriage are more likely to suffer complications in future pregnancies, research shows.

The University of Aberdeen study is the first of its kind to assess the impact of an initial miscarriage on the next ongoing pregnancy.

The women were 3.3 times more likely to have pre-eclampsia and 1.5 times more likely to have a premature baby.

The authors said these women should be monitored as well as those who have recurrent miscarriages.

Previous work has focussed on the consequences of three or more miscarriages (recurrent miscarriage), although for most women, a single miscarriage is far more likely.

Full article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7657467.stm

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Saturday, September 27, 2008

Triplets bring joy to mum who had lost hope

Photo by www.news.com.au

HAPPY additions ... daughter Erika, Eric and Francoise Pernoud, and son Axell, with one of the triplets, Sebastian. Mrs Pernoud had lost hope of having more children.

A 40-year-old Sunshine Coast woman who had lost hope of having more children after a series of miscarriages has given birth to identical triplet boys.

Francoise Pernoud decided to have her fallopian tubes tied after a miscarriage on Australia Day but fell pregnant naturally again before she could go through with the procedure.

Full story: http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24398009-952,00.html

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Sunday, September 21, 2008

BMI linked to recurrent miscarriages

Photo by www.presstv.ir

UK scientists have found that in the absence of any underlying disease, obese women are more vulnerable to recurrent miscarriages.

According to a study presented at the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynecology's international meeting, obese women with a positive history of miscarriage are at a greater risk of subsequent pregnancy loss.

Findings show the risk of a second miscarriage is increased by 73 percent in such individuals.

Previous studies had reported that the mother's higher BMI is associated with a lower fertility rate along with an increased risk of pregnancy-related complications and fetal malformations.

The study revealed that the mother's age is another factor contributing to miscarriage.

Researchers at the London's St Mary's Hospital concluded that women with recurrent miscarriages should be weighed at their first consultation, adding that losing weight is dangerous in pregnant women.

Source: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=70156§ionid=3510210

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Tuesday, September 16, 2008

City breakthrough helps defeat the ‘killer wombs’

Picture by Kharnak

A LIVERPOOL mother who suffered 11 miscarriages was able to give birth thanks to revolutionary treatment developed at a city hospital.

Kathryne Hutson, 33, gave birth to her baby daughter Lilly-May one year ago, thanks to a steroid pioneered at Liverpool Women’s Hospital’s school of reproductive and developmental medicine.

Full story: http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2008/09/13/city-breakthrough-helps-defeat-the-killer-wombs-64375-21809155/

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Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Steroids may prevent up to a third of miscarriages by controlling ‘killer cells’

Picture by mbabaracus

Women who have suffered repeated miscarriages or failed IVF treatment could become mothers by taking a course of steroids, trials have shown.

Up to 3,000 unexplained miscarriages, a third of the annual total, might be prevented each year by the drug, the British Association conference in Liverpool was told yesterday. Siobhan Quenby, of the University of Liverpool and the Liverpool Women’s Hospital, said that tests involving 120 women had identified natural killer cells as a cause of miscarriages and failed IVF embryo implants.

Full story: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article4720133.ece

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Monday, August 25, 2008

Baby Joy for Mum After 18 Miscarriages

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A WOMAN has given birth to a baby girl after suffering 18 miscarriages in eight years, it was reported today.

Angela Haston, 27, from Polbeth, West Lothian, said she wanted a baby so much that she could not bring herself to stop trying, despite the heartbreaking miscarriages.

She gave birth to Mia-Rose on Tuesday, five weeks early.

Mrs Haston's first child, Keiron, was born in 2000, but medical tests failed to ascertain why she subsequently suffered repeated miscarriages.

Last October, doctors found she had a vitamin B12 deficiency and began giving her replacement injections. Within weeks, she was pregnant - for a 20th time.

Both the pregnancy and the birth were difficult, but Mia-Rose is now gaining strength in the special care baby unit at St John's Hospital in Livingston.

Mrs Haston said: "After all these years, it has been worth it - I have the daughter I always wanted. My family begged me to stop trying, but when you want something that much, you can't stop."

Source: http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1531953/baby_joy_for_mum_after_18_miscarriages/

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Friday, June 20, 2008

New book on miscarriages

Photo by www.miscarriagemedicinemiracles.com

In "Miscarriage, Medicine & Miracles: Everything You Need to Know About Miscarriage" (Bantam, $25), author Dr. Bruce K. Young provides comprehensive information on the causes and prevention of miscarriages. A few causes include hormonal deficiencies, fibroids and cervical insufficiency, for which treatments are available. The book also breaks down myths and explores grief as well as coping techniques following a lost pregnancy.

Website: www.miscarriagemedicinemiracles.com/

Google Book Search: http://books.google.com/books?id=WPfaIAAACAAJ&dq=%22Miscarriage,+Medicine+%26+Miracles%22&ei=3_BbSJC4DpTIsQOsgoS_DQ

Buy this book: Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com, Books-A-Million, BookSense.com, Google Product Search, Amazon.ca, Chapters.indigo.ca

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Saturday, May 31, 2008

Five months pregnant & my baby was dead

Saturday January 7, 2006 - I was on a routine appointment. The scan operator said, "Can you just give me a minute, Sarah?" I lay still on my back, watching her hurried movements. I was waiting to hear the burst of amplified heartbeat from the scanner, but there was only a tense, extending silence. Finally, she put down her equipment and said, "Well, I am sorry. That's really unexpected."

"Are you saying that the baby is dead?" I asked, disbelievingly; I had experienced miscarriage before, but in the early weeks of pregnancy.

Full story: http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/family/story/0,,1680091,00.html

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Friday, May 30, 2008

Miscarriages: Understanding the missing links

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Pregnancy loss can be emotionally devastating to both mother and father. Frequently, the response tends to be, “Why me, and what could we have done differently?” It is important for these couples to realize that the miscarriage is usually not a result of something that they have done. It is also important to realize that they are not alone.

Full article: http://www.stabroeknews.com/?p=13500

Facts about Miscarriage
Information, hope, and healing for women who have lost babies due to miscarriage, still birth, or premature labour.

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Tuesday, May 27, 2008

RECURRENT MISCARRIAGE: Causes, evaluation, and treatment

Photo by www.medscape.com

Many syndromes associated with recurrent fetal loss include anatomic anomalies, endocrine/hormonal abnormalities, genetic/chromosomal abnormalities, and blood coagulation protein/platelet defects.

Recurrent miscarriage or fetal loss syndrome (also known as fetal wastage syndrome) is characterized by recurrent spontaneous abortion. There are many syndromes associated with recurrent fetal loss, including anatomic anomalies, endocrine/hormonal abnormalities, genetic/chromosomal abnormalities, and blood coagulation protein/platelet defects.

Many of these syndromes are treatable, leading to normal term pregnancy, if the clinician is astute and vigorously pursues a thorough evaluation of why the patient has suffered unexplained, spontaneous miscarriages. There is no uniform agreement on how many spontaneous, unexplained miscarriages are needed to diagnose recurrent fetal loss; we generally pursue an evaluation for causation if a women has had 2 or more such events.

In this article, we discuss the common reasons for recurrent fetal loss, plus diagnostic procedures to consider in pinpointing the problem, such as cytogenetic studies, blood coagulation protein/platelet tests, hysterosalpingography, sonography, and magnetic resonance imaging. We also describe management strategies that often lead to successful pregnancy outcome when the underlying problem is addressed.

For example, in the case of thrombotic defects, a common cause of recurrent fetal loss, we report a 100% success rate in achieving a normal-term delivery among women who took low-dose (81mg/day) aspirin preconception followed by postconception low-dose (5000 units q12h) heparin.

Full article: http://www.asklenore.info/miscarriage/bick/bick4print.html

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Wednesday, May 14, 2008

After 5 heart-wrenching miscarriages, Alicia Reale Cooney has her little boy

Photo by blog.cleveland.com

Alicia Reale Cooney cuddles her son, Liam, 9 months old. After five miscarriages, he is her reason to celebrate her first Mother's Day as a mom. Alicia hopes her story will help others who are trying to become parents

Alicia Reale Cooney wondered if she was meant to give birth. It was August 2005, and she had miscarried for the fourth heartbreaking time.

You get married, and you have a child. For everyone but her, it seemed so easy.

"It was so hard to see our friends have baby after baby, and we had none." It may sound selfish, she says, but that's the way she felt. "My babies were dying."

Hope and love kept Alicia and her husband, Chris, from giving up on parenthood. If their story encourages others, they are happy to tell it, because, nearly two years after that fourth pregnancy loss, a journey that included yet another miscarriage and two in vitro fertilization attempts, their dream came true.

Alicia is celebrating her first Mother's Day as a mom.

She got pregnant the first time right after they started trying, a year after they married in 2002. They had just moved into a new house, one with an eat-in kitchen and a family room in University Heights "for the family we thought we were having," says Alicia.

Two months later, at her first obstetrics appointment, her doctor searched for a heartbeat, couldn't find one and referred Alicia for a more comprehensive ultrasound. The next day, still no heartbeat.

Alicia was devastated, but everyone told her it was an "isolated incident."

They tried again, but months passed with no success.

Alicia, 33, went to see Dr. James Liu, a reproductive endocrinologist and chairman of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at University Hospitals' MacDonald Women's Hospital. Alicia wasn't ovulating, and he prescribed Clomid to jump-start her ovaries.

Within several months, Alicia was pregnant again. But at seven weeks, her obstetrician couldn't find a heartbeat.

"You think all your life that you're going to grow up and have a family," she says. "Something like this just throws a wrench in your plan."

After miscarrying twice, she had a hard time going to family functions that involved children and avoided baby showers. She sent her mother to buy a gift for a friend because she couldn't walk into a Baby Gap.

The couple had to distance themselves from the stress. Whenever they went out to dinner, they had a rule. "We said, OK, no fertility talk," Alicia says.

All those years of trying to have a baby didn't hurt their marriage, it strengthened it, she says. "It was a partnership."

Trying everything she could think of Alicia had laparoscopic surgery to make sure there was no endometriosis, a thickening of the uterine lining that might make carrying a baby difficult. She saw an acupuncturist who put needles in her ear, said to be a link to the reproductive system.

"I tried everything I could think of," she says.

Liu stepped up the hormones.

In June 2005, she got pregnant for the third time, only to miscarry about six weeks later. In late August, she had her fourth miscarriage, again at about six weeks.

Liu suggested consulting a miscarriage expert in Chicago. The Cooneys flew there twice, but all testing came back normal.

"It was so frustrating," Alicia says. "You want to be well, but you also want an explanation."

About this time, a sensitive girlfriend didn't know how to tell Alicia that she was pregnant, so she told her in a letter. It was a gesture that Alicia regards as very sweet when others said hurtful things about her miscarriages, such as "it was meant to be."

Her work as a media coordinator at University Hospitals Case Medical Center was a distraction. "But when I went home at night, I'd cry," Alicia says.

She leaned on Chris, asking him if he thought they would ever be parents. "We have to be strong," he told her.

A surrogate pregnancy was out, they'd decided, opting instead for in vitro fertilization, a process that costs about $11,000 in Cleveland. Alicia would undergo a course of high-powered fertility injections. Eggs would be retrieved and fertilized with Chris' sperm.

One of the three embryos doctors inserted into her uterus implanted itself. But again, about six weeks later, Alicia miscarried.

"It felt like the end of the world," she says.

Rest of the story: http://www.cleveland.com/living/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/living-1/1210408462299340.xml&coll=2

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TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:

Pregnancy Miracle -- - A 279-page, instantly downloadable e-book presenting a 5-step, sure-fire, 100% guaranteed, clinically proven holistic and ancient Chinese system for permanently reversing your infertility and your partner's infertility disorders and getting pregnant quickly, naturally and safely within 2-4 months without drugs, dangerous surgeries, side effects, or expensive infertility treatments. It's probably the most powerful infertility reversal system ever developed, and currently the best-selling e-book of its kind on the entire Web! Here's what the author Lisa Olson had to say about her incredible program: "After 14 years of trial, error and experimentation, I finally discovered the answer to infertility and developed a fool-proof system to getting pregnant the natural way - no drugs, or surgery necessary. And now I'm finally revealing my secrets in this new 'encyclopedia' of pregnancy called, Pregnancy Miracle." "I will be your own personal coach, take you by the hand, and lead you through the lousy advice, hype and gimmicks...and directly to the sort of inner balance perfection that will end your battle with infertility forever and help you become a proud mother of your healthy children."