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A Complete Guide to Miscarriage at Home

miscarriage_at_home

Is Miscarriage Normal?

Pregnancy and miscarriage carry a ton of emotions, and one may feel devastated or uneasy when going through a natural miscarriage. Although this is can be an extremely tough time mentally and physically, it may be comforting to know you’re not alone. 

An estimated 10%-20% of women who know they are pregnant will have a miscarriage. Also, most women (87%) who do experience a miscarriage will have a successful pregnancy and birth following that miscarriage. 

Maybe your pregnancy test was positive after missing your period, or some women have that gut feeling without having missed a period yet. Feeling excited, scared, happy, nervous, or just numb are all in the normal range of emotions when you first discover a pregnancy. Or maybe you’ve been trying for months to get pregnant and now you finally are. 

Just when you feel like you are beginning to get comfortable with your pregnancy, you start to have some spotting, maybe a little red bleeding, and then some light cramping. 

Next Steps

Contacting your health care provider and making them aware of what is going on is important. They may offer to have an ultrasound or blood work done. The bleeding becomes heavier and the cramping gets stronger and you no longer have the pregnancy symptoms you were starting to feel prior. Unfortunately, you are most likely experiencing a miscarriage. 

If your body is already starting to bleed and cramp, this is a sign your body is getting ready to expel the products of conception. Sometimes there’s not an actual fetus present. This means it could be a chemical pregnancy with no fetus, just a gestational sac. 

If there are no complications, you can safely miscarry at home. You may want to have some ibuprofen on hand and a hot water bottle. Soaking in a warm bath can also be very soothing. The worst of it can take about 2 hours with some pretty intense cramping and heavy bleeding. 

When to Seek Help

You would need to seek out medical care if you have pain that you cannot tolerate, or if you begin to hemorrhage. The definition of a hemorrhage is, soaking a maxi pad to where you can wring it out, and doing this for 2 hours. Of course, if the bleeding is much heavier than that or you feel unsafe, don’t wait to get medical help. 

Missed Miscarriage

A ‘missed miscarriage’ is where the fetus stops growing but there’s no signs of bleeding or cramping right away. It’s usually during the first ultrasound that this will be diagnosed. Or if you were following the beta HCG hormone, and it isn’t doubling or rising appropriately in the first 10 weeks, a miscarriage can be diagnosed this way, as well. 

If you do have a missed miscarriage, do not wait before seeing your provider for an intervention. It is dangerous for the pregnancy to sit in your womb for months, as it can cause some dangerous bleeding when the natural miscarriage begins. You will most likely be given several options, depending on the preference of the provider. It is always best to be informed ahead of time, in case your provider does not offer all the common or available options. 

Intervention Options for Missed Miscarriage

  • D&C or Dilation and Curettage

A D&C is a fairly common procedure to eliminate uterine lining and pregnancy contents. This procedure is very safe and complications are rare. Light spotting and cramping is common in the first few days after a D&C. 

  • Medications

Medications like Misoprostol are also an option, which cause your uterus to cramp. This process usually takes about 24 hours to complete. This option is also very safe and complications are rare.  

Miscarriage is Common

Miscarriage is very common, you would have to have 3 in a row before it is considered a medical problem. An option is to see a Maternal Fetal Medicine doctor to have a consult regarding any specific blood tests needed to determine if you have a genetic predisposition to miscarriage. These may include: Anticardiolipin, TSH, Lupus anticoagulant, beta 2 glycoprotein, and maternal karyotype. 

Some providers will recommend taking a baby aspirin every day to reduce the risk of miscarriage. And sometimes they may recommend taking progesterone to help you maintain the pregnancy. These all depend on the results of the blood tests and the actual medical diagnosis that is causing the miscarriages.

Next Cycle and/or Pregnancy After Miscarriage 

You can have your beta HCG levels checked, or simply wait for your next cycle. You should have a period by 4-6 weeks after the miscarriage. If you don’t have your cycle within 4-6 weeks, contact your care provider for further testing or ultrasounds. It is recommended to actively prevent pregnancy for 2 cycles following a miscarriage to lower your risk of having another miscarriage right away.

Holistic Gynecology and Pregnancy Services

If you are looking for holistic gynecology and pregnancy services, including home birth and water birth in South Florida, contact Midwife 360 for all of your questions and needs.

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Midwife360 Turns 7!

Insurance Midwife360 Updates

On April 1st, Midwife360 will be celebrating it’s 7th year of practice. As I sit here savoring my morning cup of herbal tea, enjoying the sunshine and beautiful weather only south Florida springtime can bring, I am remembering the early days – my big ‘why’, the successes and setbacks, the various people who helped (or hurt) along the way and the current state of affairs. 

MIDWIFE360 OVER THE YEARS

I started this practice to offer something different to the women and families of my community. After working in the hospital and OB office for 8 years, I know that many women, especially the millennials, want something different when it comes to the care of their gyn health and pregnancies. And I wanted something different and better for the babies. They don’t have a voice; I am their voice and I am shouting that babies want to come into this world gently, with love and respect.

“We” started out as “I” for years, along with various students that worked with me along the way. Most notably, I was able to help Rosalia Cannava become licensed after 3 long years of apprenticeship. Mandy Rojas (currently owner of Palm Beach Maternity Center) trained with me for a bit. And then in 2018 Lauren Danella, CNM moved to Florida to begin working with me. Last February Lauren left to work with Bliss Birth Center, but came back in November when we were getting so busy. Marlie Honorat started with us in September, and will continue having 2 office days a week. In addition, the people that have helped with keeping all of the details working smoothly have been essential to our success. These include Vanessa Scoz, Sandra Alandete, Kayleigh Taylor and Bruna Possobon. 

CHALLENGE IN BIRTH SERVICES

One of the consistently biggest challenges has been dealing with insurance companies. Like any business that sells services, the key to success is being able to charge appropriately for those services and to get paid for that work. Sometimes when I’m driving around and I see a landscaping truck or construction vehicles with the company logo or even the pool guy, I am envious that those people are providing services and getting paid. The healthcare industry is unique in the world of business in that most providers (if they work with insurance) do not do the work and then get paid. I am constantly shaking my head at the system that we have inherited from the last century. 

HOW INSURANCE WORKS WITH MIDWIFES

In case you didn’t know, here’s how it works. A provider has to go through a lengthy application process to become credentialed with an insurance company. They may have to wait 60-120 days to be approved. And one can be credentialed, but not invited into the network. If they are out of network, some folks with that insurance cannot see them and use their benefits or a request can be filed to have the services covered as if the provider were in network – this is called a GAP exception or single case agreement. This usually only works if the service is something no one else is providing – like home birth with a Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM). And this can be beneficial as the provider is allowed to balance bill the client for the difference between the contracted rate and the actual charges.

That’s another eye-opener. The provider’s charges are not what the insurance company pays. For instance, my charge for self pay full journey for pregnancy care with birth at home is $7000. This covers everything, no hidden fees. The rates that have been offered to me from insurance companies vary from $2300 – $3600 for what is called Global Maternity. AND the provider may not bill for the services until after the birth. So we provide 8-9 months of regular services, but cannot get paid until well after the main event and are lucky to receive half of our normal fees. In addition, some companies require us to apply for authorizations in order to qualify to be paid for certain services – services that are part and parcel of what we do, that they cover, and are part of our contract to be compensated. 

In addition to all of this, the system for filing claims is complicated, CPT (procedure) and ICD10 (diagnosis) codes must be accurate and present, and they only accept electronic claim filing through an electronic data clearinghouse. Therefore, a provider has to turn over a percentage of the already low amount of money they receive to a third party to file the claims and appeal any denials – which happen regularly. I’ve been told that insurance companies deny a percentage of all claims in the hopes that some of them won’t get appealed. It’s all part of the game. These are some of the headaches and drawbacks for the provider when playing the insurance game.

DOWNSIDE FOR PRIVATE INSURANCE PATIENTS

From the client’s point of view it’s just as bad. People get insurance thinking that they will be covered if they get sick or, I don’t know, have a baby. They are paying a monthly premium usually $300-500 per month and are always shocked at the sticker price when we do the breakdown of what their financial responsibility is even with insurance. If they have a deductible, they must pay up to the entire amount before the insurance will cover anything. In addition, if there is co-insurance then once the deductible is met, they will have to pay their percentage of what’s left according to the contracted rate. Then there are things not covered by insurance (birth tub rental, second licensed person at the birth, supplies, home visits) and this fee is added. They are typically paying us an average of $4000 in addition to their monthly premiums. 

Through the years this system has consistently been the limiting factor for Midwife360. I went through 7 different billing scenarios (including doing my own electronic filing for about 14 months until I couldn’t keep up with the appeals process) before settling on the current company that we use. Innovation Billing (thanks guys!) And they are great – really help me feel that they care about our success. However, all of this paper chasing has taken the joy out of the work. The constant need to keep up with figuring out who needs to have an authorization and following up on them. And the length of time that payment can take if there is a denial or any problems with the claim makes it impossible to know what the actual revenue is for any specific period of time. It’s a ‘keep churning out the work, fingers crossed and hope for the best’ situation. 

MIDWIFE360 IS A CONCIERGE PRACTICE

Another consideration – we are a concierge practice. We offer hour long prenatal visits with at least one home visit during the prenatal period. The client has prenatal care with the provider that will attend the birth. We come to the home for the active labor and birth and stay 2-4 hours after, providing immediate postpartum care to the mom and immediate newborn care to the baby. We come to the home twice in the first week of the baby’s life. We draw labs in the office. We can perform some simple ultrasound procedures. Clients who have had standard OB care in our community are familiar with the 5-10 min prenatal visits after waiting an hour in the waiting room, sometimes having to go to the lab for blood draws, getting a provider at the birth they’ve never met, and another stranger to care for the baby. And on top of all that, insurance companies are paying the OB providers more for that level of service than they pay us for the concierge level services we offer.

NO LONGER ACCEPTING INSURANCE

In light of all of the aforementioned issues, Midwife360 is going to discontinue working with insurance companies as of November 1, 2021. We will continue all of our current contracts through October 31, 2021.

We encourage prospective clients to come in for an hour long consultation. We charge $50 for the hour, and apply that to the fees once the client has decided to come in for care with us.

We will do our best to make our services affordable for everyone who decides that they want this level of care for one of the most important days of their lives!