Defining Miscarriage

At what point do you say miscarriage has occurred? Is it when the heart stops beating? Is it when you’ve expelled the pregnancy (for lack of better words)? I feel as though I’ve been (in present tense) miscarrying since last Monday, when I first started spotting, a very long eleven days. I am not entirely sure how to even define what I’m going through. I went from, “I think I’m miscarrying,” to “I will miscarry,” to “I am miscarrying.” At what point does it become past tense? Based off of physical signs? Based off labs? When will it be over?

I never got to see a heart beating. I don’t think we even made it to that point. So is it a “chemical pregnancy?” I’d like to say no. I had pregnancy symptoms. I had evidence of pregnancy on the ultrasound. My hcg levels showed pregnancy.

I’m in healthcare. Definitions of what I have and am and will experience seem so important to me. It’s how I think I’ll make sense of everything. I recognize that healthcare (as a whole) doesn’t always have an answer. I need one. And I don’t know that I’ll ever get one.

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