Five Things I Didn’t Know About Early-Term Miscarriages Before Having One
Content Warning- this work tells the honest and sometimes detailed story of one woman’s miscarriage- please take stock of your own situation and emotional state before you decide to read on.
As an American who was educated through the public school system in Florida, the only things I remember learning about pregnancy in school were that (1) You can get pregnant from sex even if it’s your first time!! And (2) Pregnancy, STDs, and other consequences of premarital sex CAN and WILL ruin your life so it’s probably best to just save yourself for marriage. No lie, I actually remember signing an abstinence pledge during class in middle school.
Given these inauspicious beginnings, by the time my partner and I were trying to conceive in earnest, I thought I had managed to learn a lot more than you might expect the likes of me to know. I knew to take folic acid for at least 3 months before we started trying. I knew that 1 in 8 heterosexual couples have trouble getting pregnant or sustaining a pregnancy. I even knew that up to 25% of recognized pregnancies are estimated to end in miscarriages, mostly in the first trimester. I knew that having a miscarriage did not in any way indicate that a person or couple could not go on to have healthy pregnancies in the future. I knew about the cultural stigma of…