How long can a woman carry a dead fetus?

Answer 1

seek medical care & God bless you.

In the beginning of May, my doctor informed me that I was losing the baby (miscarriage). At that time I was 13 weeks and it was my first pregnancy (I'm 37 years old). I have no idea what to expect or what the passing of the fetus is supposed to look like. For 2 weeks, I was bleeding (kinda like a period) and then saw a tissue like (about 2 inches) covered with blood passing when I went to urinate. I thought that was the fetus passing. For the next 2 months, I continued having blood spots - not heavy enough for a pad but I did wear panty liners throughout. I never had any other pain so I thought the miscarriage was over.

On July 21, I went on short weekend (4 days) trip with friends. During the trip, we did sights and tours so we walked all over the places. I never felt any pain in my abdominal area. On August 2, I had a bad stomachache and thought it was from what I ate (I ate a lot that evening) - so I used the bathroom and went to bed. As soon as I laid down, the pain continued. I thought I had to urinate so I kept getting up and use the bathroom. After repeated bathroom visit and each time, there were more blood and thicker blood with tissues present. I thought it was due to the residue of a miscarriage that supposedly happened in May. As the minutes went by, I felt the most awful pain and thought it was an appendicitis (since my family has a history of it). I was sitting on the toilet for 2 hours straight (the first pain started at midnight), passing blood tissues and blood - I was in such pain that I couldn't even reached the phone to call the ambulance (the phone was upstairs and I live alone) or move. In between the pain, I finally walked next door (about 20 ft away) to my neighbor's suite and asked her to take me to the emergency - I thought I was bleeding to death. While my neighbor went to get dress briefly, I walked back to my toilet with the strongest pain and immediately a flow of water with blood came rushing out- apparently my water broke. Then immediately a sack come out - which was the fetus. It was about 3-4 inches long. When I saw it, I knew that was the actually miscarriage. I didn't want to get traumatized so I flush the toilet. My neighbor took me to the ER and it was confirmed that I had a miscarriage with the passing of the fetus. ER did the ultrasound to check if everything came out naturally.

The following day when I went to see my OB, she said that she suspected the fetus must have stopped growing/died in May and came out naturally over 2 months later. She thinks all the walk I had during my trip in July contributed to the fetus passing naturally. And of course, had they knew that it wasn't a fetus that passed at the end of May like I thought it had, they would have done the D&C immediately.

I should have gone back to do the ultrasound in May when I thought it passed. My OB did say I was very fortunate not to have an infection for carrying a dead fetus this long. I was on bed rest for the remaining of the week and still continues to bleed out the residue.

I've searched the internet to see how long was the longer someone had experienced a dead fetus inside before passing. My must have been one of the longest just because I never knew that it never passed.

It is a devastating experience, but I know things happen for a reason. I just hope and pray my next pregnancy will be complete and healthy. My advice is if you think you had a passing, please be sure to get an ultrasound afterward to be sure what passed was the fetus.