Guest Author - Krissi Danielsson

If you saw a doctor after your miscarriage, you probably heard him or her refer to "spontaneous abortion," which is a term that many doctors use to refer to miscarriage. In my opinion, this is one of the most horrible and insensitive -- not to mention inaccurate -- terms in medicine.

The meaning of the term is simple enough to see. In a miscarriage, the body sometimes aborts the developing baby, and this sometimes happens "spontaneously." Thus, "spontaneous abortion" grew to be the medical term for miscarriage. However, in many cases, the term "abortion" isn't quite accurate. A miscarriage can be detected with no sign of bleeding, perhaps by ultrasound when the woman goes in for an ultrasound and finds the baby has no heartbeat or has stopped developing. In addition, if the woman is already bleeding, it's hardly a "spontaneous" abortion given that there were usually problems leading up to the occurrence of the miscarriage. If the baby had a chromosomal abnormality, the development usually happens at an abnormal rate until the body eventually decides to let go. If there was a hormonal defect, the same is true. In all the reading I've done in miscarriage causes, it's very rare that a normally developing baby is all of a sudden "spontaneously aborted" by the body.

In addition to being inaccurate, the use of the term "abortion" in reference to women who have lost a baby to miscarriage is grossly insensitive. While I don't believe it's my place to pass judgment on women who have elective abortions, the loss of a baby to miscarriage is a whole different situation, so to speak. By using a term that is generally used to refer to elective termination of a pregnancy, women who have miscarriages get lumped into an uncomfortable category. Most women who have miscarriages wanted their babies, while women who have "abortions" did not -- for whatever reason.

I still remember after my second miscarriage when I was scheduling the d&c, in a state of shock, and the nurse asked me what the problem was. In a dull stupor, I replied the term my doctor had thrown at me, which was "missed abortion." The nurse asked where I'd had the procedure done. My heart sank. I stuttered in reply, "It's a miscarriage that didn't come out." I wanted to shout at her, "How dare you think that I would have tried to abort this baby? I would have given anything for this baby to have lived." But it wasn't the nurse's fault. "Missed abortion" sounds exactly like what she thought I said.

If you are unfortunate enough to encounter recurrent miscarriages, or loss later in pregnancy, the terms get even worse. Recurrent miscarriage patients may be referred to as "habitual aborters," as if we were women who regularly used elective abortion as birth control. Worse, some doctors have the grand bedside manner to call it "fetal wastage syndrome." If your loss took place in mid-pregnancy rather than the first trimester, your doctor may say you suffered a "fetal demise." And yes, while the term may be technically accurate, what the heck is wrong with just saying that you "lost the baby?"

In my opinion, it's time to apply a little of the spirit of political correctness to this particular field of medical terminology. It's traumatic enough to go through miscarriage without having to be exposed to this type of insensitive and abrasive language in reference to the trauma. I do understand the need for doctors to have medically accurate terms, but as outlined above, "spontaneous abortion" is hardly a 100% medically accurate term in the first place and I challenge any doctor to disagree with me. Call it miscarriage, if you will. Call it pregnancy loss. Say the baby died in utero. Any of those are more sensitive than calling it an abortion.

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