I know how much these miscarriage threads kept me going in my darkest hours.... so i decided to document my natural miscarriage experience on here for anyone else that might be in my shoes in the near future. Some facts:
Gestation by LMP at time of miscarriage: 13 weeks
Actual size of fetus at demise : 8w 2d
I have one child and I have had another miscarriage at a similar gestation so I kind of knew what was coming.
I found out the bad news at my 12 week scan. This was a missed miscarriage because I still had really strong pregnancy symptoms up til the day before the scan and then i had some very light spotting. I assumed it was the placenta attaching or something. Getting the bad news just floored me because i had no other signs of fetal demise. I was given three leaflets for three treatment options and sent on my way. I feel i was just discarded to be honest. This happened last Friday 8/7.
All day friday i had light spotting. This spotting turned into very mucusy blood streaked discharge over the weekend. Someone on this forum suggested that it was maybe due to the drop in progesterone. The mucus just kept on coming. At this point i was contemplating a d&c because i just wanted to move on with my life. I was given a date for Friday 16th. I prayed that i would miscarry before then.
Come monday (yesterday), and i had stabbing pain in my breasts (similar to when milk comes down). There was some sort of hormonal shift and the mucus discharge stopped and turned into red bleeding. For the first time i actually stained my pad. I decided to walk around to get things going. All day i had stabbing pains in my cervix and then i passed a liver-like clot the size of a strawberry. From around 7pm my cramps increased and i took strong painkillers. The cramps were manageable til about midnight. Then, nothing i took even touched the pain.
I learned from my previous miscarriage that these final pains are expulsion pains. The pain will be almost continuous in the final stages til the fetus is expelled. This stage lasts around 60-90 mins. I found that it helped to squat or sit on the toilet as laying down was too painful. The pain for me was stabbing in the cervix with pressure. My very final pains were back to back and im not gonna lie - it made me cry. Then, at the peak of my final pain i decided to push. Around 10-20ml of water came out, followed by the fetus. The relief was instant and the cramps died down. Thankfully there was a lot of toilet paper in the loo so the fetus landed on that. I grabbed a specimen container and scooped the fetus into it. The fetus was the size of a large grape and had grey and red colouring to it. The fetal material looked solid. I felt relief but sadness.... i stayed on the toilet because i could feel more pressure building up. A lesser cramp was coming. I pushed again and a clot the size of my hand came out, followed by blood pouring out and loads of clots. The next 2 hours were spent on and off the loo because of this very heavy clotty bleeding. At 4am this slowed down and i only soiled one pad when i checked again at 8am.
I woke up with moderate cramps like period pains. Blood loss was minimal but i felt weak overall and my lower back was hurting. I have had cramps all day today but they are manageable.
Sorry if some of the stuff i have written is TMI but this could help someone in the future. Yes, it is painful but the pains are short lived (60-90 mins of very intense pains). I would say from the first moderate cramp and red bleeding to the final stage took around 6-8 hours.
Any questions, please ask