General Question

omfgTALIjustIMDu's avatar

What's the difference between a stillbirth and a miscarriage?

Asked by omfgTALIjustIMDu (9293points) April 17th, 2008
Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

13 Answers

wildflower's avatar

A miscarriage can happen at any time during the pregnancy – a stillbirth is where the pregnancy actually runs it’s course up to giving birth, including labor.

amandaafoote's avatar

Both very sad :[

demogear's avatar

A stillbirth, meaning “quiet birth” occurs when a fetus which has died in the uterus or during labor or delivery exits a woman’s body. The term is often used in distinction to live birth or miscarriage. Most stillbirths occur in full term pregnancies.

Some sources reserve the term “stillbirth” for a fetus which has died after reaching mid-second trimester to full term gestational age. For example, in the United Kingdom, “stillbirth” is used to describe an infant delivered without life after 24 weeks gestation. The sources that use this definition tend to use the term “miscarriage” if the death occurs earlier in development. In contrast, other sources use the term “stillbirth” regardless of the stage of fetal development.

I found all the info above here

scamp's avatar

demogear gave a great answer. They are both horrible situations, and very difficult to get over. I had a miscarriage, and it still tugs at my heart. I think a still birth would be even harder to endure.

omfgTALIjustIMDu's avatar

Is the child born naturally in both cases, or is the fetus removed surgically?

wildflower's avatar

a miscarriage – if very early on – usually ‘flushes’ out. If later, it may have to be removed.

andrew's avatar

i remember hearing something like 1 in 4 women have miscarriages? Much higher than you would suspect.

wildflower's avatar

especially in the early stages…..that’s why people rarely tell others they’re pregnant until the the riskiest period is over.

scamp's avatar

In my case the baby was surgically removed. I was in my fourth month. the whole experience was horrible. I went into early labor, and they told me there was nothing they could do to stop it. The mistreatment I got during that experience would make your skin crawl, so I won’t go any further into it.

spendy's avatar

@andrew, yes and many cases occur without said woman even being aware – so early (almost immediately after conception) that the pregnancy is never discovered.

skfinkel's avatar

It used to be that a woman wasn’t considered “pregnant” until she said that she was pregnant—and she could wait until way into the pregnancy if she wanted. Also, many woman would wait until they felt the baby move—“quickening”—before they would consider themselves pregnant. Andrew’s statistic is right: about 25% of pregnancies end in miscarriage. Most of those are because something is the matter with the fetus—but there are other reasons also.

reddraganhot's avatar

What is the difference between a miscarriage or pre-term labor?
Lets say your 22 weeks pregnant your bleeding very bad give birth to a baby that survives in a incubator. It that called pre-term labor or a miscarriage because when your in labor you do not bleed bad but when you have a miscarriage then you bleed.

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