Lots of questions after missed misscarriage

[JennyJW]

Found out last tuesday at scan that I had had a missed misscarriage. The baby had died at around 8 weeks. Went into hospital the following day to have an erpc. Just have a few questions now. Some of them I here alot of different things about.

1. How soon after mmc and erpc can you try again? My Dr said wait for atleast 1 period

to make sure everything is out and that your
body is back to normal as it is more likely you will have another misscarriage if you don't let your body rest and get back to normal. Others like the misscarriage association say you should wait for a period but only because it is the easier to date next pregnancy.

2. They say misscarriages can be due to smoking and drinking in pregnancy. Does this apply to the man aswell? I know it can make the sperm less active but does it mean that it can affect the sperm in a way to cause a misscarriage?

3. As we all know it is important to take folic acid b4 conceiving and through pregnancy. But is it just folic acid on it's own you need. I was taking a combination of vitamins called Pregnacare. Read somewhere now that certain vitamins can harm your baby. Is folic acid on its own all you need?

4. Lastly is it advisable to do a pregnancy test two weeks after erpc to see if it shows postive or negative? Read in a few places that if it shows positive you can still have some of the pregnancy left inside you.

Hope some one can answer my questions.

[CMOTdibbler]

I'm so sorry for your loss. Will try to answer some of your questions

1. There is no evidence that you are more likely to mc if you concieve straight after another. FWIW, I conceived my DS immediatly after an ERPC

2. I don't think that early mc is linked to smoking/drinking (unless its very heavy drinking), and not in the man

3. Taking a normal multivitamin, and particularly a pregnancy one is fine. It's only if you were taking a mix of single vitamins in high doses that it might be an issue

4. If you are going to TTC straightaway, it would be a good idea to do an HPT.

[kissmummy]

hi there
sorry for what's happened to you...
actually there is a link between smoking and miscarriage, but only on the female side. (google and you will find various articles on this). but unless you are a lifelong chain smoker, it probably isn't why your pregnancy failed...I have recently seen a recurrent miscarriage consultant and asked the question about drinking and the impact on sperm, as my DH is a bit of a boozer. apparently it doesn't really lead to miscarriages...if you get pregnant in the first place, their sperm is ok...
i was recently told not to take high doses of Vitamin C during pregnancy. I had been having those yummy fizzy Vit C pills which are 1000mg and as CMOT says, apparently this is not a great idea.
the main reason docs suggest waiting for a cycle before trying again as trying straight away can lead to confusion over dates. There is some very scanty evidence that in recurrent miscarriers the chance of miscarrying again is higher if you do "back to back" pregnancies but very little research in this area i believe. In any case this is your first miscarriage so it would not apply to you.
hope this info helps a bit.
please remember that having one miscarriage, though absolutely crap, is really common, and it is unlikely you will have to go through this again....

[MiniMarmite]

Jenny, so sorry for your loss. Don't have much to add to what the others have said in response to your questions except that re your 4th question, a positive pregnancy test is most likely just hormones left rather than anything else. After my MMC I tested positive for many weeks but got a period after about 6 weeks.

As Kiss says, what has happened to you is very upsetting but you've excellent chances of going on to have a normal pregnancy very soon.

After my MMC I read a lot and found out as much as I could (and generally over analysed things to be honest). It satisfied a need at that time to help me accept what had happened and try to do what I could to make things better next time. With the benefit of hindsight (and a beautiful DS later) I can see that it was all really down to chance and there was very little I could do about it.

I've had another MMC since having my son and although I am sad it is much easier to accept that I'm likely to have another child one day.

What I'm trying to say is do what you need to do to but the most important thing is to be good to yourself and try not to look to hard for reasons. Easier said than done I know.

[sh77]

Not sure if a reason to wait before ttc again is to let the uterus lining thicken again, which will help implantation. I have been trying to see if this is the case but haven't found much info on this though.

Pregnacare is fine as the nutrients are balanced for conception/pregancy.

[JennyJW]

Thank you all for your advice and support. I think it's really good that you can talk to others here and share your thoughts and advice. Wish I had known about this place last week when it all happened.