After the miscarriage

Physical recovery

Everyone is different, but many women find that it can take them anything from a few days to a few weeks to recover physically from a miscarriage. You may find that you are particularly tired or feel generally run down.  Or you may feel better or simply relieved once the process has happened, especially if it took a long time or if   there was a long period here it wasn’t clear if you were miscarrying or not.

All sorts of things can have an impact on your recovery, including how much bleeding you have had and how long the process has taken. There are no absolutes, but if you are worried that it is taking you a long time to recover physically, it might be worth talking to your GP.

See ectopic pregnancy and molar pregnancy for information on these conditions.

Most women will get a period somewhere between four and six weeks after their miscarriage, and it may be heavier and longer than usual.

After the miscarriage: what happens to your baby

Some women and their partners do not know what happened to their baby or the remains of their pregnancy and many want to find out.

The bodies of babies who are stillborn (that is, born dead after 24 weeks of pregnancy), or who are born alive but then die, must by law be buried or cremated. For babies who die during pregnancy before 24 weeks, the situation is different because there is no law that governs what happens to these babies.

After a late miscarriage, most hospitals offer a simple funeral and either burial or cremation. Some hospitals offer this for all babies, no matter how early the loss and whether or not there is a fully formed body. Hospital practice is improving all the time, but sadly some hospitals may still treat the remains of an early loss as clinical waste.

If you want to find out about the arrangements at your hospital, ask a nurse or midwife on the ward or unit where you were cared for, the hospital chaplain, the PALS (Patient Advice and Liaison) officer, or the hospital bereavement service.

You may want to make your own arrangements for burying or cremating the remains of your baby, whether you use a funeral director or choose to bury the remains at home. There are some things to think about and you may want to contact us for further information.

A certificate for your baby

Although there is no legal certificate after a pregnancy loss before 24 weeks, some hospitals provide a certificate for parents to mark what has happened. For many parents, this is an important memento.

If you have not been given a certificate but would like to have one, contact a nurse or midwife on the ward or unit where you were cared for, the hospital chaplain, the PALS (Patient Advice and Liaison) officer, or the hospital bereavement service. If they don’t have anything they can offer, you could ask them to use one of the examples shown here.

Mailing Preference Service

The national Mailing Preference Service allows consumers to register their wish not to receive unsolicited direct mail. Now they have launched a new Baby Mailing Preference Service to enable parents who have suffered a miscarriage or bereavement of a baby in the first weeks of life to register their wish not to receive baby related mailings.

If you would like to register your wish not to receive baby related mailings, visit the website www.mpsonline.org.uk and click on the Baby MPS option, or contact the MPS for an application form, telephone 020 7291 3310, email babymps@dma.org.uk