A silent miscarriage
Every miscarriage is different. Mine was a 'missed miscarriage' at 10 weeks. An ultrasound scan revealed that the embryo had stopped developing five weeks earlier, yet my body had carried on as if nothing happened.
A missed miscarriage is also known as a silent miscarriage. The silence refers to the lack of symptoms typically associated with a miscarriage – namely the bleeding that signifies the passing of an unviable pregnancy.
I was sad to receive the news of my miscarriage, but mostly I was angry. Angry that I had gone through most of the first trimester of pregnancy, but would have nothing to show for it. Angry that I would now have a protracted, medical ending to the pregnancy, because my body was not doing what it was supposed to do. Angry that I didn’t know this outcome was a possibility.
No one talks about silent miscarriages, giving another layer of significance to the term ‘silent’.