I had a miscarriage at 16 weeks last week (see my other post about my 4 year old). Anyway I know I lost a fair bit of blood and the night I spent in hospital I was really dizzy and even fainted in the shower. Anyway, this is getting better but I still feel unwell (aside from the grieving, this is a real physical thing). I feel exhausted and a little lightheaded at time. I am thirsty all the time and getting headaches. I also get quite breathless and exhausted from any exertion.

I am assuming that I am anaemic from the blood loss, and am taking some iron tablets. I am seeing my Dr next Monday but was just wondering if anyone would be happy to share their story of the physical recovery. And is there anything else I can be doing. I am desperate to start walking again, as I find exercise quite therapeutic, but I am struggling to get the energy to do this.

Hi Jen,

After having Ava, i treated it like i would do any other pregnancy. After having my other children it took awhile to feel physically OK. This time my milk came in as well, so i felt pretty crappy until that dried up ( after about 10 days). Remember your hormones are still all over the place and that grief itself manifests in physical ways too.

I am a gym junkie/beginner body builder, and i started getting back into exercising after 2 weeks. I find it really helps, endorphins etc, and i feel much better about myself at the same time. I did have to push myself to do it in the beginning, but now i actually look forward to it.

It's different for everyone, but definately take an iron supp, i use floradix and it acts as a multi vitamin as well.

Apart from that it's time. However if you have fever etc and feelings of being unwell, then you could have something going on, maybe retained placenta etc, so if you do feel crappy as in unwell then see your GP.

Kirsten

I lost a lot of blood too, and definitely noticed being puffed etc more, but my dr said it was ok for me to excercise just to be aware that I would be more tired and not beat myself up for being "unfit". She recommended gentle, shorter walks. Walking on the treadmill at the gym was good in some ways because if I got tired I could just stop there and then (and not have to walk all the way back home!) but then again being outside in the sun helped my mood. I was lucky because I don't have any other kids and took a bit of time off work- so if I spent a couple of hours up cleaning or something I would then spend a couple of hours sitting down with a book or resting.

I'm really sorry for your loss. I had a miscarriage 2 1/2 weeks ago, at 6 weeks, which I imagine was far less traumatic physically and emotionally than what you have gone through, but I am still really tired most days and have no energy. I have started exercising again too in the hope that will help, I have been resting a bit more than usual and not doing so much around the house. I think my problem was I didn't rest when it happened (I went to work the day of the miscarriage, it happened early in the morning). I hope you start to feel better soon.