D&C and abortion - same physical consequences?

[tovlo4801]

I’m wondering if a D&C is a morally acceptable medical procedure when a woman has had a misscarriage. My understanding is that it’s essentially the same procedure as an abortion. I’ve struggled with this for over a year now. This is a personal question for me. My first pregnancy was a miscarriage. I discovered it when I started showing the physical signs of miscarriage. I was in a strange town and the doctor in the ER pressured me to have a D&C. I did not want it. It didn’t make sense to me since I was already starting the miscarriage process. But I relented and had it. I bled throughout my next pregnancy. I went into early labor and they needed to do a c-section because he was in a rare difficult birth position. They still couldn’t get him out after the regular c-section cut so they had to cut me even more to reach him. My future pregnancies then needed to be c-sections because of the weakness of this cut. My final pregnancy also was a miscarriage. In this case the baby had died over a month previous to the doctor’s visit and I was only then beginning to experience symptoms. I was advised of the dangers of a miscarried pregnancy that does not seem to be naturally aborting so I went ahead and did the D&C my doctor offered. This time though because of all the c-sections and the weakness of my uterus I began to bleed and they ultimately needed to remove my uterus to keep me alive.

After my second D&C and the loss of my fertility, I heard someone talking about the temporal consequences of abortion. They said that there is frequently damage to the uterus and future pregnancies can be difficult. I’ve been haunted with the worry that my uterus might have been damaged during the first D&C leading to the bleeding, unusual position and early labor in the pregnancy of my first living child. The circumstances of my first child’s birth ultimately led to the loss of my uterus in the final D&C.

Did I make an immoral choice in having D&C’s after I discovered my miscarriages? Did I put my future children and my fertility at risk with an immoral procedure? Or is the procedure neutral and only the intent with which it’s performed immoral?

Thank you for helping me find some answers to these questions.

God Bless

 

[Trelow]

What else are you going to do?

There isn’t that many options, and a D&C is the safest method that I am aware of.

Sounds like your problems aren’t related to you having the D&C, but you had to have it because of your problems. That is unless the doctor butchered the job the first time, not very likely.

My wife had to have one after we lost a baby. We both feel for your losses.

 

[SeekerJen]

tovlo4801:

Did I make an immoral choice in having D&C’s after I discovered my miscarriages? Did I put my future children and my fertility at risk with an immoral procedure? Or is the procedure neutral and only the intent with which it’s performed immoral?

The procedure itself is neutral. Many women need them to remove uterine fibroid tumors or other tissue that is an impediment to normal uterine function (such as a miscarried fetus that has not detached). Sometimes even if the miscarriage is obvious, not all of the fetal or uterine tissue is passed, and that can cause various problems for the woman. I would imagine that such an occurance would have prevented you from getting pregnant again.

Sometimes the procedure is even helpful to women. My parents tried for two years to get pregnant. It was ultimately discovered that my mother had uterine fibroids and endometriosis that were likely preventing a fertilized egg from attaching. A D&C was advised, done, and three months later she was pregnant with me. She says that now she wishes she would have investigated her condition and the treatment again as she and my father were never able to have another child.

Unfortunately the procedure is common in voluntary abortion- and in that case, yes it would be immoral. In your case, it is as neutral as a woman who has part of her fallopian tube taken out to remove an ectopic pregnancy. It is an unwanted procedure and an unhappy one, but medically necessary and therefore not immoral. God bless you.

 

[bapcathluth]

If you have already had a miscarriage, I think a Dilation and Currettage is necessary to prevent a serious infection. If you leave behind anything after a miscarriage, it could be life-threatening.

 

[TAS2000]

A D&C is not the same as an abortion. It is a procedure they routinely do after you had a miscarrage, or an abortion, which is the only link between the two. If you had already had the miscarrage, then there is no question that the procedure would have been immoral. It is conceivable that the doctor may have done a real hack job and casued you to have further complicatins in future pregnancies, but highly unlikely. Most likely it was a series of unfortunate complications in your other pregnancies that ultimately led to the final procedure. You have no reason to beat yourself up about this. You did nothing wrong or even questionable from what you have said thus far.