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Spontaneous miscarriage - information for patients. Part 1 - causes.

Dr Sophie Poland

You can read this text in 7 min.

Spontaneous miscarriage - information for patients. Part 1 - causes.

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Sadness, depression

This article explains what spontaneous miscarriage is and the main factors that can cause this complication of pregnancy.

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Almost every woman has in her psyche an encoded desire to have offspring. Many of them consider it their life goal. A miscarriage is a great tragedy for a woman. Many of them experience such an event very painfully and cannot come to terms with the thought of losing a child. Of course, the main question on the minds of women who have lost a pregnancy is why it happened, what could have been the cause. Unfortunately, it is usually extremely difficult, and sometimes impossible, to answer these questions.

Causes of miscarriages

There are, in fact, a great many factors that can become the cause of a miscarriage. As a rule, the factors that have a negative effect on an early pregnancy do not occur on their own, but act simultaneously. This is why it is so difficult to identify a single cause. Very often, the cause of a miscarriage is not found at all.

Among the factors that can cause miscarriage, the most common are:

  • external factors, i.e. those to which the woman is exposed in her daily life, and
  • internal factors, i.e. factors that depend on her body or on defects in the foetal egg.

Complications of early pregnancy can be influenced, for example, by changes in temperature. Sudden warming up or cooling down of the body, so-called thermal shock, can cause miscarriage. A woman's lifestyle is also very important. Working under difficult conditions and being exposed to teratogenic factors, such as exposure to chemicals, irradiation or magnetic fields, can damage the foetal egg and result in its premature expulsion. Sudden changes in pressure, as well as prolonged vibration and shocks also have a negative effect on early pregnancy. Substances such as alcohol, cigarettes and drugs can also have a negative effect.

photo: pantherstock

There are also a number of so-called internal causes of miscarriage. These include causes on the part of the mother as well as the fetal egg itself. Various types of malformations and defects of the woman's reproductive organs, in particular the uterus, significantly restrict, or make it almost impossible, for the egg to implant properly and develop further.

Among the most common uterine abnormalities that can contribute to miscarriage are:

  • abnormal position of the uterus, e.g. severe retrogression, underdevelopment also being a common cause of difficulties in getting pregnant,
  • malformations such as a septum in the uterus,
  • bicornuate uterus and
  • various types of tumours of this organ.

All of these lesions can hinder the normal development of the embryo, leading to its death and subsequent miscarriage. In order for the fertilised egg cell to implant properly in the uterus, it is very important for its mucous membrane, the so-called endometrium, to be properly prepared.

In cases where the woman has had operations on the uterus in the future, such as removal of myomas, diagnostic cleaning of the uterus, numerous abortions or inflammations of the reproductive organs, numerous scars may have formed in the mucous membrane, preventing the embryo from implanting properly. Also, procedures performed on the cervix can become the cause of cervical insufficiency and difficulties in maintaining a pregnancy.