Miscarriage: Everything You Need to Know for Natural Healing
Early miscarriage is very common. Bleeding in pregnancy is even more common, but only about half of women who have first trimester bleeding will actually miscarry. It’s believed that virtually every woman will have at least one miscarriage sometime in her reproductive years, occurring in as many as 40% of all conceptions. Many miscarriages fortunately go unnoticed as an unusually heavy, crampy or late period. This explains the lower general statistic of 10-20 percent of pregnant women miscarrying before 20 weeks.
Sometimes the initial symptom is spotting, or premature resolution of early pregnancy symptoms. Sometimes, there is no sign that anything is wrong, but the early ultrasound and labs are diagnostic of a miscarriage, blighted ovum, chemical or abnormal pregnancy. Heavy bleeding with cramping, lower abdominal or back pains and/or passage of tissue or fluid from the vagina during early pregnancy usually indicates that a miscarriage is in progress and there is little that can be done to stop it. In most cases, a miscarriage is your body’s natural way of rejecting an unhealthy or abnormally implanted fetus.
However, once the pregnancy has been diagnosed, the grief and emotional pain that you feel with miscarriage can be very acute. It’s often physically uncomfortable, and can even be a little scary.
When a miscarriage is confirmed by your symptoms, blood tests for pregnancy hormone levels (quantitative beta HCG and progesterone) and ultrasound as indicated, consult with your practitioner regarding the risks and benefits of each option, and a plan of action. You can choose whether to let nature take its course (expectant management) if deemed a safe option and/or use natural remedies, acupuncture and traditional Chinese herbs to assist in the process. Alternately, you can take a medication to encourage its completion (medical management), or have your uterus cleaned out surgically with a procedure known as a D & C (dilation and curettage or surgical management). Whatever you choose, you may still benefit from many of the suggestions when watching and waiting, and healing.
Watching and Waiting
If your condition has been evaluated as stable and you want to go home to wait the inevitable, you can do so, and here is what you can do to help. Have a close, nurturing and able family member or friend stay with you so you are not alone until the miscarriage is complete and the intense cramping and bleeding significantly diminish. And remain in close contact with your practitioner. Usually the bleeding, cramping and possibly low back pain increase in amount and intensity over the next few days until the bleeding is heavy and the cramping is severe. Women tend to be surprised by the intensity of cramping, how heavy the bleeding can become, the size of clots and what else they pass in a normal uncomplicated miscarriage. Most often, the severe symptoms should not last more than a few hours and end when all the products of conception have been passed (the fetus, placenta and membranes, which may not be discernible prior to 8 weeks).
Sometimes the process may take longer, occurring over several days to weeks. In any case, once you have passed all products of conception, the cramping gradually subsides and the bleeding tapers down to occasional spotting for the next week or two. The earlier you are in the pregnancy, the more medically uncomplicated a miscarriage is. The main risks, especially later in the first trimester, are incomplete miscarriage from retained products of conception, hemorrhage and infection.
Be sure to contact your practitioner and go to the emergency room if severe symptoms persist beyond a few hours or you:
Are steadily soaking through a regular pad in less than 1 hour (especially after you miscarry)
Have a total blood loss of more than 2 cups
Pass large clots (congealed globs of blood larger than a tennis ball)
Pass clusters of grape like vesicles suggestive of a molar pregnancy
Feel drowsy, weak, spaced out or oddly unwell
Feel dizzy, lightheaded or faint
Are sleepy, incoherent, or unusually anxious
Look pale or feel cold and sweaty
Develop severe pain
Experience a foul-smelling discharge
Have a fever over 100
Experience a persistence or worsening of symptoms despite following these suggestions
While you are miscarrying, go easy. Keep warm and comfortable, and listen to your body, but do not fall asleep while you are bleeding heavily. It is helpful to try to visualize your body letting your fetus and placenta go fully, your cramps emptying your uterus completely and minimizing bleeding, your placenta coming off easily from the wall of your uterus, and letting go of a pregnancy that was not meant to be.
Imagine your uterus surrounded by light and contracting in a rhythmic wavelike pattern, like ocean waves that come and go. Totally surrender to the pain and to a power greater than yourself, and try to fully accept the miscarriage and that which you can not control. Trust that your body knows just what to do and that this is for the best in the grand scheme of things, even when you do not understand why.
Experiencing physical and emotional pain is humbling, and it can be a chance for personal growth. It can be an opportunity to practice techniques like breathwork, mindfulness, befriending and relaxing into intense sensations that will help with life beyond. Pain provides a chance to learn how to prioritize, delegate, let go of routine activities, and allow others to help and support you. It can teach you compassion for yourself and others, patience, acceptance, surrendering to what is. It can enhance your connection to a higher intelligence or the spiritual realm. It can sensitize you to other people’s pain and enable you to be of service to another who is suffering, - especially from pregnancy loss. Is there something else that it can teach you? Is there a silver lining or gift in this experience? It may be too early for you to know these answers or even want to think about them in your grief, but this is your journey that you were given, and is key to ending your suffering and healing fully.
BREATHING & COPING TECHNIQUES
The following breathwork exercises are simple to do and can be done any time and place, and can help you tremendously go through your experience with more ease. When all is otherwise healthy and well, throughout the exercises, practice embracing, relaxing into and even magnifying intense sensations without the mental story about them. Can you make friends with discomfort and pain in your pelvic area and in your heart, instead of trying to escape, numb or fight it? Allow yourself to fully feel whatever you feel in your body, including the waves of strong emotions that come and go. Get curious about all of their details, including the borders or edges, and parts of you that feels good, or does not have painful sensations. Yes, there are remedies to help alleviate pain. But you will be amazed how effective this practice is, and how much it will help you to better cope with your current pain as well as the pain that is an inevitable part of being human.
Sit up straight or lay down comfortably with your eyes closed, internally keeping your gaze between your eyes, or open and focused on a nonmoving distant object or place. While breathing be mindful, and just observe and release any muscle tension working your way slowly from head to toe. Practice Ujjai breathing. Do this by breathing at the pace and depth that feels right for you, inhaling through your mouth or nose, directing the breath into the back of your throat making a sound like ocean waves (it is a calm, slow, and smooth circular version of gasping on inhale and fogging a mirror on exhale). This is wonderfully soothing and meditative, combined with the benefits of breathwork.
Breath Awareness
Start with being more conscious about your breath, and simply focusing all of your attention on your breathing. Explore all the details of your sensations as you inhale and exhale, without trying to change anything. Notice what you are currently seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling, tasting. Just watch without judgment. This brings you to the present and is deliciously relaxing.
Deep Abdominal Breathing
Exhale slowly with an audible sigh, releasing all muscle tension, especially in your jaw and breathing diaphragm muscle.
Inhale slowly through your nose for a count of 4. Imagine a pump expanding your abdomen, and lower back, down to your pelvic floor, causing you to inhale. Allow ribs to expand with air, then inhale air into your upper chest towards your collarbone and shoulders.
Exhale slowly through your mouth for a count of 4. Release effortlessly, in the same order you inhaled, returning to baseline, your abdomen, ribs, then upper chest. With each exhalation, try to let go and relax even more.
Repeat this cycle for at least a few minutes. You may need to play with counts, using a count of 3 or maybe even 5 or 6. But keep the counts of inhale the same as the counts of exhale.
Then extend, or double the exhale. For example, if you are inhaling to a count or 3, exhale to a count of 6, or if you are inhaling to a count of 4, exhale to a count of 6. And repeat this cycle for several minutes.
Triangle Breathing
Inhale for a count of 3 or 4, exhale to the same count of 3 or 4, then pause for the same count of 3 or 4, while consciously and deeply relaxing your diaphragm muscle of respiration, as well as all other muscles. Repeat for several cycles or a few minutes.
Box Breathing
Another great breathing technique that disengages your conscious attention from thought and relaxes the nervous system, and can be done any time, is box breathing. With this exercise, you add a timed pause between each inhalation and exhalation.
Set a timer for 5-10 minutes.
Inhale deeply into your belly as above for a count of 3.
Hold without tension for a count of 6.
Exhale to a count of 6 while consciously relaxing more and more.
Hold again without tension for a count of 3.
Repeat until your timer chimes. You may love this so much you will want to do it longer.
Then choose the breathing technique that helps you the most now and use it as you are miscarrying.
Need more video instruction for breathwork? Take my online breathwork course.
Conscious Relaxation
Notice habits of increased muscle tension, especially around your upper back, shoulders, neck, forehead and jaw, and make an effort to release these tightened muscles while doing slow deep abdominal breathing.
It would be very beneficial to you if you could learn how to relax the muscles that are tensing up, as you are breathing. It is an essential skill for life and can be used in any stressful situation. Breathe slowly and deeply while thinking about relaxing each muscle from your head down to your toes. Focus on releasing all of your muscles, more and more with each exhale. Visualize feeling heavy and limp like a rag doll, or like your napping dog or cat.
As the cramping intensifies, assume any position for comfort like hands and knees, yoga child’s pose, kneeling or leaning forward on an exercise ball. Rhythmic movement is comforting, like gentle bouncing, rocking, swaying or pacing. Moaning through your cramping helps as well as saying chakra syllables, mantras, or simple affirmative words or sounds like “AhhhhhOmmmmmm,” “Shhhhhhhh,” “Release,” “Open,” or “Let Go.”
Ask your support person to massage areas of persistent muscle tension with Arnica oil mixed with a dropperful of St John’s wort topical oil and a few drops of Lavender. Periodic firm massage or pressure to your feet, lower abdomen, upper back and sacrum is soothing. Use a hot or cold pack, heating pad, hot water bottle or a very warm wet towel with a few drops of Lavender oil over your pelvic area or lower back. Tightly hold small combs so that the teeth are pressed into the mounds at the base of your fingers. This stimulates acupressure points to facilitate uterine contractions.
Make sure to stay well-hydrated by drinking at least 64 ounces of filtered, spring or well water away from food (at least 20-30 minutes before or 2 hours after eating) every day. Try to sip a cup of clear fluids like water, electrolyte infused Smart Water, pure coconut water, herbal tea and honey, juice or frozen juice pops, Recharge or organic Gatorade, Miso, bone or vegetable broth or chicken stock every hour. Urinate frequently so your uterus can properly contract. You may need more fluids and electrolytes if bleeding is heavy or prolonged and you feel dehydrated. To make your own electrolyte concoction : combine:
⅛-¼ tsp sea salt
¼ tsp baking soda
1-2 Tbsp honey
Juice of fresh lemon or lime to taste.
If miscarriage has been confirmed with ultrasound and you’re interested in herbal support, try the following formulations. These are only for a known miscarriage and are not safe or recommended to induce abortion in a healthy pregnancy.
While there are many herbalists like Susun Weed, and holistic midwives whose books line my shelves, with now a plethora of recipes and recommendations used effectively around the world for countless years all over the internet. Dr. Aviva Romm remains one of my favorite resources for safe effective use of herbs in childbearing. She is an integrative physician, midwife and herbalist who has done extensive research and compiled the most comprehensive, evidence based reference guide I have come across called Botanical Guide For Women’s Health. In The Natural Pregnancy Book she advises the following wonderfully effective remedies:
For herbal miscarriage support:
Combine a 1 ounce bottle each of cotton root bark and black cohosh tinctures with ½ ounce of blue cohosh tincture.
Take 1 tsp of the combination every 4 hours on the first day, every hour x 4 on the second day
Then ½ tsp every 30 minutes for 4 hours the rest of the second day.
Skip a day and repeat the second day dosing one more day if you have not started cramping. Consult your provider if still no results after doing this.
To prevent mild to moderate bleeding from becoming heavy, combine equal parts shepherd’s purse, witch hazel and bayberry bark tinctures and take ½ tsp every hour. You can add ¼-½ tsp beth root tincture every 15 minutes during the acute stage, then every 2 hours until bleeding has tapered down.
You can also brew a tsp of basil or cinnamon in a cup of boiling water and sip the tea throughout the period of miscarriage to support contractions and minimize bleeding.
If anxious or feeling emotionally off balance after a complete and normal miscarriage, drink strong Lavender, Lemon Balm, Skullcap, Motherwort, Passionflower, Hops, and/or Chamomile tea as often as needed using two bags and steep for 10-15 minutes. You can take any of the calming herbs in capsule or tincture form, that works best for relieving your internal stress and steadying your emotions. The healing herbs of Dr. Bach’s Rescue Remedy used as directed can have a calming influence during this stressful time (take a few drops of as often as required). Avoid alcohol, mood altering drugs and medications like sedatives, as they can cloud your thinking, suppress your body’s natural responses and thus interfere with healthy grieving.
To prevent retained products of conception and ensure the uterus clears out completely, take a dropperful of Angelica tincture 3-4 times per day that first week, or up to every few hours until the heavier bleeding lessens. Add 1-2 dropperfuls of ground ivy tincture every few hours if the bleeding and cramping are still persisting. Consult your provider if this does not help.
If all else fails and/or you need something stronger for the pain, give yourself permission to take ibuprofen (Motrin or Advil). You can take up to 800 mg every 6 hours for 1-2 days during the intense period of the actual miscarriage. Then lower the dose to 400 mg every 6 hours as needed.
After The Miscarriage
After a complete miscarriage, it takes some time to heal physically and emotionally. The amount of time varies with each woman, but it is helpful the first few weeks to get plenty of sleep, take it real easy, stay warm and cozy, drink lots of fluids and eat hearty and wholesome real foods.
Remember to take your vitamin, mineral and nutritional supplements to make sure you are fully nourished. I recommend taking an herbal iron in tablet or liquid form for 2 months. If you were anemic and/or lost a significant amount of blood, follow these suggestions regarding symptoms to be concerned about, diet and natural remedies to boost your iron stores.
To prevent infection, for the first week:
Take 1000 mg Vitamin C with bioflavonoids 1-2 times daily
Eat a bulb of garlic daily (baked or sautéed cloves in olive oil, salt and pepper) or take New Chapter’s Garlicforce (a capsule of supercritical fresh organic garlic) 1-2 times per day
Take Oil of Oregano 1-2 times daily
Take1 dropperful of Gaia’s alcohol-free Echinacea Supreme 3-4 times per day
You can also add a dropperful each of calendula and goldenseal herbal tinctures a few times daily to not only prevent infection, but to promote healing.
Echinacea Supreme, Goldenseal and Calendula can also be taken in capsule form.
To further support your immunity, take Host Defense Asian mushrooms 2 per day.
Refrain from a bath until the major bleeding subsides, but showering is fine. Once the bleeding stops, enjoy a daily warm bath with a few drops of the essential oils of Lavender, Neroli, Frankincense, Cinnamon and/or Rose to help ease stress and promote healing after a miscarriage. You can also place a few drops of your favorite essential oil in your diffuser.
Periodically check your temperature to ensure you are not developing a fever. Do not put anything inside the vagina until your bleeding stops (it could be a few weeks for the bleeding to taper to light then spotting). Change your pads every few hours and wipe front to back after going to the bathroom.
You can ovulate as soon as 2 weeks after a miscarriage. Most women get their period in 4-6 weeks if not pregnant again. The first period after a miscarriage may be a little different so give yourself time to get back to your usual cycling. It is advisable to use contraception, and wait at least 1-2 regular periods in a row before trying to conceive again, more time if you had complications, or simply need to get your iron levels back to normal. There are helpful online resources to guide you as well for general healing and getting pregnant after miscarriage.
For a wonderfully nourishing herbal infusion for the 4-6 weeks after miscarriage:
Combine a handful each of red raspberry leaf, nettle leaf, dandelion root, and strawberry leaves.
Mix in a pinch of fresh or dried ginger root, a small piece of cinnamon stick, and a tsp of alfalfa.
Place a small handful of the mixture into a glass canning jar.
Add 1 cup boiling water and brew for 2-3 hours.
Strain, and drink ½ -1 cup 2-4 times per day.
You can add juice of lemon or lime, fresh mint leaves or dash of honey to taste.
Many integrative holistic practitioners recommend additional herbs like Vitex or Chasteberry, Don Quai or Angelica, Red Clover, Wild Yam, False Unicorn, Licorice, Ginseng, Ashwagandha, Maca, Rhodiola, and/or Holy Basil to support your hormones and reproductive organs, as well as your stress response and adrenals during this healing time, specific to the situation. Acupuncture and Chinese herbs can be very effective as well. Consult a professional regarding which ones and dosing are best for you.
You will need to be examined in a few weeks to make sure you are healing properly and discuss future plans. It is ideal to get an ultrasound to confirm the miscarriage is complete, and check pregnancy hormones until they return to non pregnant levels. If your blood type is Rh negative and the father of the baby is Rh positive, an injection of Rhogam is strongly recommended within 72 hours. This is to prevent you from developing antibodies against Rh positive fetal blood cells that mixed with your circulation during the miscarriage. This can dangerously attack another Rh positive baby’s blood cells should you become pregnant again.
Ask your practitioner and the hospital for reading material or handouts specific to miscarriage and pregnancy loss, as well as for a local support group, therapist and member of the clergy with whom you and your spouse can speak. This will help you better cope with your grief, disappointment and guilt, and enable you to go through the process of mourning in a healthy way.
Many find it very healing to hold a special memorial ceremony to name, grieve, provide closure, and remember your baby. You can also write something to your baby, like a poem or letter. You can plant a tree or perennial plant or flower, or buy or create art, small remembrance figurine, necklace or bracelet to symbolize, honor and remember your loss.
Spiritual Support
On a mind/body/spiritual level, you can give the baby permission to go if he or she needs to. Treat yourself with love and care, and try to love yourself and your body without toxic feelings of blame or guilt. This can be a wonderful and healing opportunity to practice mindfulness and stay in the present moment. Simply watch all the various sensations you experience, accepting and surrendering to what is true, and the often intense feelings you may experience without judgment. Instead, choose compassion and love for yourself and others close to you.
Slowly and deeply focus on your breath, meditate and simply sit quietly, letting thoughts come and go without attaching to them. Breathe into the pain or visualize healing light or energy directed at the emotional pain you feel, dispersing it into the atmosphere or falling deep into the earth beneath you. Know that you are going through one of the deepest lessons of life’s impermanence and our lack of control over it. You will find your inner strength, heal physically and emotionally in time, and one day be more able to help others who go through this common but painful experience. Many of the suggestions for managing emotions in pregnancy still apply now. What really helps is to allow yourself to feel everything you feel, and move it through your body with music. To help you process, release and heal intense, stuck, painful emotional energy and trauma from the experience, schedule a Clarity Breathwork session with me. This is a great way to get the support and guidance you may need to get yourself back.
If You’ve Had Multiple Miscarriages
Women who have suffered from 3 or more consecutive pregnancy losses need expert medical care and counseling. A number of factors can contribute to repeated miscarriages, including:
Increased maternal age
Chromosomal or genetic abnormalities
Hormonal imbalances
Cervical incompetence (the cervix opens prematurely, especially if scarred after a traumatic procedure)
Uterine abnormalities (as in structure, fibroids or scar tissue)
Immunologic problems, serious illness or chronic health problems
Blood elevation of a kind of lipid or certain clotting factors
Poor lifestyle choices like smoking, drinking too much alcohol, drugs and other toxic exposure
Consider an experienced doctor of Chinese medicine and acupuncture in adjunct to any medically needed treatment, which can be very effective for preventing recurrent miscarriage and strengthening you for a healthy pregnancy next time around. It’s also essential to decrease internal feelings of stress and promote inner peace as well as joy by doing more of what you love. Taking yoga classes, regularly practicing your breathwork and meditation are wonderful places to start.
Please be reassured that many of the causes of repeated pregnancy loss are medically or surgically treatable. Never give up hope...there are many success stories. Some are accomplished with simple attention to correct nutrition, hydration and lifestyle habits (like quitting smoking, avoiding alcohol, drugs, and other noxious substances), taking supplements and herbs, reducing stress, enhancing spiritual practice and prayer.
If you need more personal guidance, I am happy to help. You can set up a consultation with me here.
When physically recovered, try yoga and discover this transformative healing practice for your mind, body, heart and spirit.
This course has 14 yoga classes plus bonus material:
Seven ~ 60-80 minute Level 1 Yoga classes
Seven ~ 60-80 minute Mindful Hatha Flow Yoga classes, building to Level 2
A soothing Gentle Slow Flow Yoga class
A Restorative Yoga class for deep relaxation
Bonus videos of an hour Live more advanced Vinyasa Class, shorter breaks of yoga anywhere anytime, use of props - like the wall, a chair, yoga blocks, yoga belts, yoga blankets and bolsters to enhance your practice, and practicing with your baby or pet..
The classes are for all people able to take them. Part one of the series will invite you to grow, strengthen, focus, train and enhance your mind, body, heart and spirit. Discover for yourself the calming, healing and transformative power of yoga - intentional meditative movement with breath.
Classes begin with meditation made simple using breathwork, gradual warm up, increasing difficulty as well as yoga play, gentle cool down, and end with restorative practices in deep relaxation. They are slow flowing, with space to explore specific poses but are meant to challenge you. Classes are different each session, with classical fundamental alignment based asana fused with modern postures and their many modifications and varied creative transitions. Classes are taught with modifications as needed. They also are fused with meditative, breathwork and visualization techniques which will transform your experience and life with regular practice.
The classes are there for you to practice a different class each day of the week or according to your own frequency, then start over again from the beginning of the series. Each class ranges from on average 60 minutes to 80 minutes, and they build on each other from Part one to Part two; following the sequence from class 1 onward is advised if it is your first time taking the series or are a beginning practitioner. Classes are mindful, at a slow safe pace, gentle but challenging, so that you build strength, flexibility & agility. They start with the basics but are for all levels of experience, and beginners too are welcome! You can use the initial classes as beginner classes, just modify as needed and use the tools and techniques as they pertain to your own life. The need to relax into intensity and the other multiple benefits of yoga practice pertain to everyone.
Once you hone your skills, you can take the Mindful Hatha Flow Part 2 Class Series that follows, doing your own modifications as needed - for wherever you are on your yoga journey. They also build on one another and can be practiced successively until you are ready to mix and match and create your own classes and practice schedule.
Additional videos are included to enhance your practice with use of the various props, as well as a soothing gentle slow flow class and a restorative yoga class for deep relaxation (great for evening!), shorter breaks of doing it anywhere and anytime, and a live bonus video of a more advanced class.