Types of Abortion

Email This Post Email This Post · Print This Post Print This Post

An abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo, resulting in or caused by its death.

Causes of Abortion

Abortion may be occur due to various factors such as fetal, placental, or maternal.

  1. Fetal Causes – The most common cause of early spontaneous abortion is abnormal development of the zygote, embryo or fetus. These abnormalities are incompatible with life and would have resulted in severe congenital anomalies had pregnancy not been aborted spontaneously.
  2. Maternal Factors – These are congenital or acquired conditions of the mother and environmental factors that had adversely affected pregnancy outcome and led to abortion. Such conditions include diabetes mellitus, incomplete cervix, exposure to radiation and infection.
  3. Placental Factors – Placental factors usually cause abortion around the 14th week of gestation. These factors includes premature separation of the normally implanted placenta and abnormal placental implantation.

Abortion Types

Characteristics

Management

Threatened Abortion
  • occurring before the 20th week of gestation
  • characterized by cramping and vaginal bleeding with no cervical dilation.
  • it may subside or an incomplete abortion may follow.
  1. Bedrest
  2. No coitus up to 2 weeks after bleeding stopped
Imminent or Inevitable Abortion
  • membranes rupture and the cervix dilates
  • characterized by lower abdominal cramping and bleeding.
  1. Hospitalization
  2. D and C
  3. Oxytocin after D and C
  4. Sympathetic
  5. Understanding and emotional support
Incomplete Abortion
  • is characterized by expulsion of only part of the products of conception (usually the fetus).
  • severe uterine cramping
  • bleeding occur with cervical dilation.
  1. D and C
  2. Oxytocin after D and C
  3. Sympathetic
  4. Understanding and emotional support

Complete Abortion
  • characterized by complete expulsion of all products of conception
  • light bleeding
  • mild uterine cramping
  • passage of tissue
  • closed cervix
  1. There is no treatment other than rest is usually needed.
  2. All of the tissues that came out should be saved for examination by a doctor to make sure that the abortion is complete.
  3. The laboratory examination of the saved tissue may determine the cause of abortion.
Missed Abortion
  • intrauterine pregnancy is present but is no longer developing normally
  • the cervix is closed, and the client may report dark brown vaginal discharge.
  • pregnancy test findings are negative.
  1. Usually treated by induction of labor by dilation (or dilatation) and curettage (D & C).
Recurrent or Habitual Abortion
  • characterized by spontaneous abortion of three or more consecutive pregnancies
  1. Trace the cause of recurrent abortion
Septic Abortion
  • abortion complicated by infection
  • foul smelling vaginal discharge
  • uterine cramping
  • fever
  1. Antibiotics as prescribed by your Obstetrician

Advertisements:


Related posts:

  1. Spontaneous Abortion A.  Description 1. Spontaneous abortion is the expulsion of the...
  2. Nursing Care Plan – Spontaneous Abortion Miscarriage or spontaneous abortion is the spontaneous end of a...
  3. Pregnancy Complications Complications of pregnancy are the symptoms and problems that are...
  4. Placenta Previa Placenta Previa is the development of the placenta in the...
  5. Nursing Care Plan – Postpartum Hemorrhage Postpartum hemorrhage is defined as a loss of blood in...


Find Your Nursing Topic:

Loading
Posted by Admin on Nov 6th, 2009 and filed under Maternal & Child Health Nursing, Student's Reviewer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response by filling following comment form or trackback to this entry from your site


Leave a Reply

DISCLAIMER: Comments expressed in this website are those of the readers and do not necessarily reflect the position of NursingCrib.com or any of its sister sites. NursingCrib.com does not knowingly publish false information and may not be held liable for the views of readers exercising their right to free expression.

All articles in this site was meant for educational purposes only. We don’t claim full ownership of the videos, pictures and some articles posted on this site. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Nursing Topics