Does a Miscarriage Require Medical Treatment?

Featuring Dr. Barra O'Briain, MD
Video Title: Does a Miscarriage Require Medical Treatment?
Duration: 1 minute, 35 seconds

Most of the time miscarriages take care of themselves - the products of conception we call them and the fetus, is passed on its own.

It can be associated with a remarkable amount of bleeding for a short period of time and that can be scary for the woman and her partner, but usually it will pass on its own.

Sometimes either the - for instance during an early ultrasound, we find that there's no fetal heartbeat and we know that the miscarriage is inevitable, it can take a few weeks and that can add to the angst and may provoke, and women may choose to have a D and C so they're not faced with waiting for this.

And sometimes the bleeding is quite heavy, and the products don't pass and that may force the decision to have a D and C for the mother's safety reason. But for the most part miscarriages do take care of themselves without any medical intervention.

Other than a D and C as part of the treatment there are medications which we can use – misoprostol - which can actually help with the process of provoking a miscarriage if it's inevitable. But with regards to the miscarriage iteself obviously the first thing to do is if you're having bleeding in the first part of your pregnancy is to contact your family doctor or your midwife or whoever's takng care of you during your pregnancy.

Presenter: Dr. Barra O'Briain, Family Doctor, Vancouver, BC

Local Practitioners: Family Doctor