What is intrauterine fetal demise?
What is intrauterine fetal demise?
Intrauterine fetal demise is the clinical term for stillbirth used to describe the death of a baby in the uterus. The term is usually applied to losses at or after the 20th week of gestation. Pregnancies that are lost earlier are considered miscarriages and are treated differently by medical examiners.
What cause intrauterine fetal death?
Stillbirth has many causes: intrapartum complications, hypertension, diabetes, infection, congenital and genetic abnormalities, placental dysfunction, and pregnancy continuing beyond forty weeks. This is a catastrophic event with lasting consequences on all of society.
How common is intrauterine fetal demise?
Second trimester intrauterine fetal death is typically recognized as a demise after 20 weeks of gestation or a fetal weight of more than 500 grams. It affects about 1 in 100 pregnancies each year in the United States, and the rate has declined by more than 25% in the last 15 years.
Is fetal demise an emergency?
It is also important for you to know that a fetal demise in the second trimester is not a medical emergency so treatment is not immediately indicated.
What happens if a dead fetus is not removed?
Waiting for spontaneous expulsion is also possible. Women who retain the dead embryo/fetus can experience severe blood loss or develop an infection of the womb. These are rare complications.
How do you remove a dead fetus?
Surgical management This treatment involves a surgical procedure known as a dilatation and curettage (D&C) which is done under a general anaesthetic. The procedure will remove any pregnancy tissue from your uterus. It is successful in 95 to 100 per cent of cases but there are small surgical risks.
How can intrauterine fetal death be prevented?
The following antenatal services can significantly reduce both antepartum and intrapartum fetal deaths:
- Detection and treatment of syphilis.
- Detection and management of hypertensive disease of pregnancy.
- Management of sickle cell disease.
- Detection and Management of Diabetes.