Induced abortion or induced miscarriage is the intentional ending of a pregnancy, performed by medical professionals in the first trimester and up to 28 weeks of pregnancy. Surgical abortion is performed by opening a widened cervix, where the fetus and its attachments (placenta, umbilical cord, amniotic sac, amniotic fluid etc.) are removed from the mother’s body.
- For pregnancies before week 10, abortion is done using gentle suction because the fetus/embryo is still very small at this stage.
- For pregnancies between 11 weeks until 13 weeks, the abortion is done by removing the fetus using a sopher clamp via the cervix in a Dilation and Curettage (D&C) procedure.
- For pregnancies between 14 weeks until 28 weeks, Labor Induction Termination of Pregnancy will be the recommended method.
Induced abortions are more common than you think, with several thousand procedures taking place every single day. Click here to check the numbers verified by the World Health Organization.
Through Dr Chen Fenglin’s extensive medical research over his entire professional career, he has identified that a high percentage (50 percent) of recurrent early miscarriage patients had undergone a surgically induced abortion. Dr Chen began to research in-depth for the correlation and discovered a significant difference between the placental samples collected from women who have undergone abortion and women who have not.
During a surgical abortion procedure, doctors use a curet to scrape the uterus lining to ensure there are no leftover pregnancy tissues to avoid any uterine infections. It is very common for uterine walls to be damaged during this process, which exposes the endometrial veins beneath the uterine walls.
If there are any excess or leftover fetal tissue in the uterus, there is a high chance that it may enter the mother’s bloodstream, which may generate an immune response. The mother’s immune system registers the fetal tissue as a foreign invader that should not be retained in the mother’s body. Hence the mother’s immune system generates a specific antibody that ‘attacks’ the new fetal tissue, specifically it targets the chromosome 2 gene in the embryonic cells. These antibodies are known as anti-embryo antibodies.
Chromosome 2 has the essential function of making fibronectin, which acts as a protective immunological barrier on the surface of the . Without this crucial layer of fibronectin, the fetus is exposed to the mother’s immune system. Therefore, in the next pregnancy with the same partner, the anti-embryo antibodies present in the mother’s blood will detect chromosome 2 in the fetal tissues once again. It dissolves the fibronectin layer protecting the fetus, which leads to the mother’s immune cells attacking the exposed fetus, leading to an early miscarriage.
If left untreated, this process repeats every time the mother gets pregnant with the same partner. What many medical professionals deem an ‘unexplained recurrent miscarriage’ is, in fact, actually an immunological recurrent miscarriage. Please arrange an appointment or inquire with us to find out more about the treatment of early recurrent miscarriages.
Other Risks of Induced Abortions that leads to pregnancy complications:
They include:
- Infertility due to severely damaged endometrium layer
- Intrauterine Adhesions (can lead to late miscarriages)
- Endometrial scarring (causes blood-insufficiency miscarriages)
Induced Abortions do more harm than good
Antai Hospital firmly encourages women to not undergo induced abortions, as it causes several pregnancy complications and also detriment to your physical and mental health. There are high risks of potential incomplete induced abortions leading to severe vaginal bleeding and uterine infections. It is also the main reason of the formation of anti-embryonic antibodies which will lead to an “immunological miscarriage”, and will further complicate into recurrent immunological miscarriage if left untreated.
Recommended way of Pregnancy Termination
Patient, if has no other choice but to end the pregnancy, should opt for an embryo removal via Hysteroscopy as it does not causes any secondary damage to uterine lining and also no uterine bleeding. The procedure is very accurate and precise, as it completely removes all the pregnancy tissues, prevents any breaking or shattering of the tissues. Most importantly, it eliminates the possibility of any embryonic tissues from entering the mother’s circulation.
Click here to find out more about this specific surgical procedure.