9 Key Aspects of Spotting During Early Pregnancy: What Every Future Mom Must Know?
Pregnancy often is not only the most joyful but the most disturbing period in the life of practically every woman. There is really a number of reasons why a woman may feel worried, and spotting during early pregnancy is one of them. Actually 15 – 25 % of pregnant women come across something like this and begin to panic. Dear future mommies, let’s calm down and talk about it, as this spotting can be both a norm and an alarm bell.
1. Definition
Spotting during early pregnancy looks like bloody discharge, similar to the one you have during your period, but less in quantity. The color of this spotting may vary from red to brown.
2. Causes
Harmless Spotting During Early Pregnancy
- In the 1st – 2nd months of pregnancy your organism hasn’t yet adjusted to its new function. That’s why you may experience brown spotting in the days when your period was supposed to be. This discharge isn’t dangerous if its painless and short-term.
- Spotting may occur in the 1st day of your pregnancy, when a fertilized egg implants itself within the uterine wall. This discharge is not abundant and may occur approximately 7-10 day prior to the expected period.
- Sometimes cervical erosion begins to bleed slightly during early pregnancy. This phenomenon is associated with hormonal changes in the organism. Doctors don’t recommend to treat cervical erosion during pregnancy, but 6-8 months after the delivery.
- Gynecological exam or sex may also cause spotting, as the lining of the genital tract is very fragile during pregnancy.
- The other cause is a low level of hormones, synthesized by placenta. This spotting doesn’t present any danger, however, its cause needs to be corrected by your doctor.
Dangerous Causes
- Vaginal or cervical infections
- Cervical polyp (a small buildup or tumor on the cervical lining)
- Knots of myoma (large knots on that part of the uterine lining where the embryo has embedded and placenta is developed)
- A hereditary disease, causing bleeding, for example Willebrand’s disease
- Vanishing twin syndrome (when one or a few foetuses during multiple pregnancy are detached, leaving only one foetus in the uterus)
- The most dangerous is ectopic pregnancy. In this case spotting is the sign of threat to the pregnancy: the fertilized egg was embedded in the wrong place and began to detach.
3. Risk Factors
Without treatment dangerous causes may have the following consequences: miscarriage or premature labour.
4. Symptoms
Sometimes bloody discharge in early pregnancy confuses a woman: she believes she is having her period. The typical sign of this spotting is its color – dark, brown. The discharge is usually thick and scanty and it finishes much faster than regular period. Besides discharge, a woman may experience drawing pains in the lower abdomen and back.
5. Diagnosis
You may need to have vaginal ultrasonography made to find out if there are any complications and whether everything is ok with you and the baby. Your doctor may require your blood and urine tests to check the level of certain hormones.
6. Treatment
If there’s a real threat of miscarriage, a doctor prescribes bed rest or hospitalization along with supporting medications, like duphaston or utrogestan. In case the fertilized egg is detached, hospitalization is inevitable and the treatment prescribed is more intensive, as the attachment of the fertilized egg back in some difficult cases is not always possible.
7. Prevention
As we already know, spotting during early pregnancy is not a disease itself, but a symptom of other conditions, dangerous or not. That’s why we can’t do anything actually to prevent this spotting but we can contact a doctor as soon as it occurs. That’s why any woman must know: the more abundant is her bleeding and the stronger is her pain, the fewer chances she has to keep the pregnancy and prevent the miscarriage.
8. Home Care
- Try to calm down – no disaster has happened yet.
- Lie down immediately and call someone from your family if you are home alone.
- Contact your doctor or ambulance immediately. You mustn’t go anywhere yourself!
- Follow your doctor’s prescriptions strictly.
9. When to Contact a Medical Professional
The same symptoms may indicate both a variant of norm and a threat to your pregnancy. That’s why you are recommended to contact your doctor if during pregnancy you notice even slight spotting.
“Spotting during early pregnancy” or even “bleeding” sounds alarming but usually it doesn’t cause any harm and goes without any consequences. According to the statistics, 50% of women, contacting a doctor for this reason, have given normal birth to their children.
