GUARDINGAGAINST MISCARRIAGES
What is a miscarriage? A miscarriage is spontaneous passage of pregnancy tissue. Miscarriagesusuallytakeplaceonetofourweeksafterthepregnancylosesitsviability. Apregnancy fails long before a woman winds up in the Emergency Room at 4 am with a miscarriage in pain and bleeding. The distinction must be made between “pregnancy failure” and miscarriage.Apregnancy fails before the miscarriage occurs, thus there is a way to guard against miscarriages.
Dr Steven R. Goldstein, an obgyn in Manhattan, has not had a patient miscarry in more than 25 years. However, he has certainly had patients who had pregnancy failure, though none have had a spontaneous passage of tissue (miscarriage) and wound up in the emergency room bleeding and in pain.
So, while pregnancy failure (which is due to a number of factors such as chromosomes etc) cannot be prevented, the painful, bleeding miscarriage certainly can. How? By early pregnancy monitoring.
Early pregnancy follows very classic milestones of development and by following a pregnancy with Transvaginal Ultrasound a physician can tell if a pregnancy is meeting its milestones. So, for instance if a woman had a miscarriage in week nine, she could not have had a normal eight week six day ultrasound the day before she miscarried. By seeing patients very early in their pregnancy and following them at regular intervals
with transvaginal ultrasound,it is easy to see ifthe pregnancy is meeting its milestones.
So, if a pregnancy is not meeting its milestones and there is early detection of a miscarriage prior to its spontaneous passage (miscarriage) , there is time for an elective Dilation and Curettage (D&C) procedure that saves the patient from much pain and bleeding.ADilation and Curettage (D&C) procedure is one in which tissue is removed from inside the uterus.
There is a further benefit to early pregnancy monitoring. An elective Dilation and Curettage(D&C)procedureforafailedpregnancyprovidestheopportunitytoexamine the pregnancy tissue to see if there are any abnormalities of the chromosomes which will explain why the pregnancy failed and possibly prevent recurrent miscarriages.
Doctor Steven R. Goldstein MD is an obgyn in Manhattan inpractice for over25 years. Dr Goldstein ses painless, non-invasive Transvaginal Ultrasounds to monitor pregnancies. He is a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at New York School of Medicine, a former Director of Gynecologic Ultrasound at New York University Medical Center and is President of the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine and a past President of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), New York chapter.
If you are a pregnant woman interested in monitoring your pregnancy or a woman who has had a previous miscarriage and concerned about recurrent miscarriages, then an appointment with Dr Goldstein, an obgyn in Manhattan, may be in order.