Anything I can do after 1 miscarriage?

[stickytoffeepud123]

Hi,
I recently suffered a miscarriage of my first pregnancy in November (2019). I had a scan at 9 weeks which showed baby had died at 8 weeks despite a healthy heartbeat at 6 weeks.
I know the NHS won’t do any investigations until 3 or more miscarriages, but if I do fall pregnant again (we are on first cycle of TTC again now) is there anything at all I can do to prevent another MC? It absolutely broke my heart and I can’t bear the thought of going through it all again! I know that chances are it was down to genetic abnormality, but I can’t help but worry that there is something wrong with me and it will happen again
I’ve done some reading about 75mg aspirin and think I might try taking that if I do fall pregnant again, as that seems to be the only thing I can do without a prescription (apart from the obvious folic acid and healthy lifestyle etc!!)
I tried to do some googling on private testing but all of the results seem to feature the words “recurrent miscarriage testing” with no mention of being able to go after just one miscarriage..
sorry for rambling on but I just want to prevent having to have 3 MCs in a row before at least trying to do something about it if you see what I mean

I had a miscarriage prior to my current pregnancy and felt just the same as you do. I can't really offer any advice because as you say, it is just chance and there's almost certainly nothing you could have done. What helped me was having a private early reassurance scan at 7 weeks and seeing a heartbeat, although it obviously doesn't guarantee anything. Also, please be careful with the aspirin, I know it is prescribed under certain circumstances but I think in a normal pregnancy you're advised to avoid it.

Sorry I can't suggest anything more helpful, I do understand how you feel as I was there myself a few months ago and it does steal some of that early pregnancy joy from you. I'm 29 weeks now and other than a bleed early on my pregnancy has been totally textbook so far and there's no reason your shouldn't be able to do the same. Good luck x

Hiya, I’m feeling the same way OP, having found out there was no heart beat yesterday at our 12 week scan.

At about 9 weeks I was told I should have been taking a high dose of folic acid all along. I started taking it then, but I’ll always wonder if it was left too late and it didn’t develop properly neurologically.

I also had a couple of infections at 10 weeks (urine infection and conjunctivitis). The urine infection was non-symptomatic so who knows how long I had it for and whether that could have effected the pregnancy. The conjunctivitis was untreated and cleared up after 5 days because the pharmacist said there was no safe treatment in pregnancy.

I know I have a couple of fibroids. I’m 39 and about 2 stone overweight.

I think my plan (if we decide to try again) is to get as healthy as possible. Lose weight. Gentle exercise daily. Keep taking the high dose folic acid and vit D. Drink loads of fluid to avoid urine infections. Avoid stress wherever possible. I might even cut down my hours at work if we can afford it. I will talk to the GP (and maybe EPAC when they call) about my fibroids.

I have a vague memory after I had my daughter (who is now 5) the midwife commenting on my placenta. I was 15 days overdue and something about part of it fragmenting due to poor blood supply.

So like you, loads of speculation. I really want to know everything. I’ll let you know if I get any investigations done and how I got them.

I’m so sorry for your loss.