5 Steps To Decreasing the Chance of Recurrent Miscarriages

As someone who has experienced two early miscarriages, I can say having a miscarriage is really, really hard.

Not only did I have to deal with the feeling of loss, confusion, and sadness. But I also had to work through the resentment towards my pregnant friends that would “fall” pregnant every time they sneezed. It has gotten better over the years, but some days it can still be hard.

That is why I want to share with you five steps you can take (and have been shown through scientific studies) to decrease your chances of having another loss and preventing miscarriage by creating a healthy, baby friendly body.

1. Prepare for Conception

Preparing ahead of time for your pregnancy is the key to decreasing the chances of a miscarriage. There are steps you can take to reduce the chances of another pregnancy loss, but they must be begun months before you become pregnant again. The first step is to prepare your body with a Fertility Cleanse. Fertility cleansing helps to cleanse the liver of old toxins and excess hormones, rid the uterus of any “old” contents, and cleansing the blood.

2. Eat a Nutrient Dense Fertility Diet

The next step is to nourish and build up your body to be a healthy, baby-friendly body. This can easily be done through eating a nutrient dense Fertility Diet. What you eat has an impact on:

* The health of your eggs
* Your hormonal balance
* Creates a healthy placenta
* Decreases chances of a miscarriage
* Builds nutrient storage for baby
* Creates healthy reproductive system

You will want to make sure you are eating a fertility diet consistently for at least 90 days before you begin trying to conceive for your best chances of creating a healthy pregnancy. You can learn how to eat a nutrient dense fertility diet here.

3. Build a Healthy Foundation

One of the major foundational steps to increasing your changes of having a healthy pregnancy is to take some basic vitamins, minerals, and EFA’s. There are specific vitamins and minerals that are necessary for a healthy reproductive system, hormonal balance, and ovulation.

Building a healthy foundation is a two punch step. You will want to be taking a multivitamin and omega 3 supplements. But the key here is not to just take any multivitamin. The best multivitamin to take for fertility and pregnancy is a prenatal multivitamin. But be careful when you are choosing which one to take. NOT ALL SUPPLEMENTS ARE CREATED EQUAL. Make sure you are taking a whole food prenatal multivitamin.

Essential fatty acids are also extremely important for miscarriage prevention through creating a healthy body. EFA’s, specifically omega 3’s, are responsible for many fertility actions. But specifically for aiding in possibly preventing miscarriage - they help to reduce inflammation, aid in hormone balance, and are essential for healthy eggs, just to name a few.

4. Apply Self Fertility Massage

Another important element of promoting a healthy conception is to increase the circulation to the uterus. From our daily lifestyles of not exercising enough, exercising too much, sitting at a desk all day, pretty much life… can decrease the circulation to the uterus. You see the left leg and the uterus share the same major artery with most of the blood going to the legs, especially when we live in a stressful state of fight or flight ( our bodies sends all the blood to the muscles and brain in preparation for running away or fighting), the circulation to the uterus will be compromised.

Through applying a simple massage method called Self Fertility Massage you are able to increase the circulation to the uterus, clear adhesions, clear congestion (if you have endometriosis, PCOS, clotty and dark periods, and heavy cramps during your period, I am talking to you). You will want to use this technique to your program.

5. Follow a supplement and herbal program

*Note: These are traditional therapies for miscarriage. There are no guarantees being made that they will stop a miscarriage. Most miscarriages are meant to happen due to issues with the fetus. These herbs will not stop a miscarriage that is meant to happen. They are helpful with miscarriages that are caused from stress, poor diet, trauma, weak uterine muscles, or low progesterone levels. Herbs help to provide extra nourishment and strength needed to nourish a depleted body. If you think you are having a miscarriage consult your doctor right away.

Bed rest and removal of stress factors is the most important first step to take. Get off of your feet.

Vitamin E in doses up to 600I.U per day (use only 50 IU if you have high blood pressure, heart disease, or diabetes)

If your recurrent miscarriages are due to any of the three reasons, there are natural remedies that have been shown to help decrease the chances recurrent miscarriages.

* Immunological
* Hormonal ( low progesterone)
* Chromosomal (you could have some impact, it matters if it is the egg)

The supplements are:

* These products work best when taken for a minimum of 3 months in preparation for conception.

Vitex

Vitex (Chaste Tree berry) Has been traditionally used by midwives and herbalist to prevent miscarriage associated with low progesterone. It can be used in conjunction with progesterone creams.

Is it safe to take vitex during pregnancy?
Aviva Romm states in her wonderful book Botanical Medicine for Women’s Health…

In placebo controlled studies for teratogenicity and mutagenicity were conducted in rats, and even with the animals ere administered 74 times the dosage typically consumed by humans, no toxicity nor aberations in fetal development were seen. While Vitex can be used to help a miscarriage that is acute, it is best to use at least 3 months prior to conception and continued into the first trimester to maintain stable progesterone levels. The Botanical Safety Handbook provided no contraindications to use during pregnancy.

Maca

Maca is a nourishing food for the endocrine system, aiding both the pituitary, adrenal, and thyroid glands (all involved in hormonal balance.) Maca has the ability to affect key hormones in both women and men without containing hormones itself.

Maca helps to stimulate and nourish the pituitary gland, acting as a tonic for the hormone system. When the pituitary gland functions optimally, the entire endocrine system becomes balanced, because the pituitary gland controls the hormone output of the other three glands.

In women maca works by controlling estrogen in the body. Estrogen levels that are high or low at the wrong time can keep a woman from becoming pregnant or keep her from carrying to term. Excess estrogen levels also cause progesterone levels to become too low. Taking maca may help to increase the progesterone levels which are essential to carrying a healthy pregnancy.

Progesterone

Low progesterone during pregnancy may be a leading cause of recurrent miscarriages. Progesterone is responsible for creating a healthy environment in the womb by creating and maintaining a healthy uterine lining. It also may reduce the chances of blood clots and immune system responses to the fetus as a foreign substance. It is the pregnancy hormone.

If you feel this might be your situation try to get your hormone levels tested before using the progesterone, than get tested again to make sure your levels are high enough.

There has been great success from people I personally have worked with and have heard of many midwives swearing by natural progesterone. Progesterone cream is used from right after ovulation until your menstrual cycle, or if you get pregnant continue use and contact your health care provider.

Make sure to have at least two bottles on hand, because running out could cause a big drop in progesterone which may cause the menstrual cycle to begin.

Fertility Enzyme Therapy

For recurrent pregnancy losses caused from either immunological response or blood clotting, Fertility Enzyme Therapy may be an affective option. In a five year study women who had experienced a recurrent miscarriage due to immunological response (more than 30% of miscarriages) were put on a systemic enzyme supplement before and during there pregnancies(1). 79% of the women carried out their pregnancies to term and gave birth to healthy babies.

This is an amazing discovery. The only options available before this study were anti-immunological agents similar to the type used in transplant patients, but most doctors will not use them due to there toxicity during pregnancy.

Habitual Miscarriage Prevention Formula

This formula should be started 3 months prior to conception and continued until at least 2 weeks past the latest weeks’ gestation of previous miscarriage ( if the previous miscarriage occurred at 8 weeks, continue the formula until at least 10 weeks)

Combine the following tinctures together:
Vitex: 50ml
Cramp Bark: 30ml
Partridge Berry : 20ml

Suggested usage: 5ml twice a day

Cramp Bark
If there is uterine cramping without cervical dilation, cramp bark has been traditionally used to help stop uterine spasm and contractions. It has been used for hundreds of years as miscarriage prevention.

Partridge Berry
Is a uterine tonic traditionally used to help strengthen a weak uterus.

References:
1. Weed, Susan. Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Years. 1986.
2. Chris Serafini, D.C. Systemic Enzymes, Lignans and Uterine Health. PDF
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14. Shoham, Z et al, Luteinizing hormone: it’s role, mechanism of action, and detrimental effects when hypersecreted during the follicular phase, Fertil Steril, 1993, 59(6):1153-61
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16. Bussen, S et al, Endocrine abnormalities during the follicular phase in women with recurrent spontaneous abortions, 1999, Human Reproduction, 14(1):18-20
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21. Romm, Aviva. Botanical Medicine for Women’s Health. 2009.