Using heparin during pregnancy can be the solution for mothers who are already considering giving up on motherhood after experiencing repeated cases of miscarriage. Normally, people do not look to see if there is a problem before something happens and symptoms of a health issue appear. This is especially true for women who suffer from thrombophilia. Thrombophilia is a hereditary disease or may be acquired1. It acts directly on the production of the body’s natural anticoagulants. A lack of coagulation during pregnancy poses great risks not only to the baby but also to the mother. The disease obstructs the blood vessels that supply the placenta, which is responsible for delivering the necessary nutrients for the fetus’s development.

For this reason, as soon as the disease is discovered, treatment with heparin2 is recommended to reduce the risk of complications throughout the pregnancy, especially towards the end. During this phase, it is quite common for preeclampsia and placental insufficiency problems3 to develop, in which the fetus may die. The pregnancy is usually carried on until the baby is able to survive outside the uterus and a c-section is indicated.

Heparin should be injected daily by the pregnant woman herself. The heparin doses will prevent clots from forming and will keep blood coagulation normalized. When thrombophilia is detected before pregnancy or after several occurrences of miscarriage due to thrombophilia, treatment with heparin should begin even before getting pregnant again. Even when following the heparin treatment properly as recommended by a doctor, the woman should be aware that this is a high-risk pregnancy. But with proper medical monitoring, ongoing treatment, and additional tests for evaluation, it is possible to go to the end and have your healthy child in your arms.

Testimony of a Woman Who Made Heparin a Vehicle to Achieve Her Dream

Heparin allowed me to fully experience motherhood. It was thanks to the medication—of course, along with excellent medical care—that I have my daughter today, my beautiful Iolanda. I discovered that I have thrombophilia, a disease that causes excessive blood clotting in various situations, including pregnancy, in the worst possible way. My son Francisco died at 38 weeks in my womb, just one day before his due date. I could have had a stroke, embolism, or heart attack.

But what happened affected my greatest treasure, as my little child was deprived of oxygen, possibly because of clots in the placenta and cord. That pregnancy was truly neglected by the obstetrician who (failed to) care for us. He should have noticed the signs that something was wrong and he ignored them. In my case, the cause of the disease is a mutation, but there are also acquired thrombophilias. Research on the disease is still recent and not all markers have been discovered. For this reason, many doctors end up recommending the anticoagulant even when tests are negative, basing their decision solely on the patient’s history.

Many women experience recurrent miscarriages, preeclampsia, or late-term loss, as happened with me. Another factor that may indicate the need for heparin is intrauterine growth restriction, which might be related to difficulty in nutrient passage to the baby. The Doppler ultrasound exam is essential to determine whether a pregnancy is progressing well, as it should, with oxygen and nutrients reaching the fetus properly. The problem is that most doctors either only order one Doppler exam, or none at all.

The Doppler exam needs to be repeated at the end of pregnancy, when many complications can occur, yet this preventive measure is still rare among obstetricians. Most pregnant women only use the prophylactic dose, which is 40 mg, to prevent excessive coagulation. This dose, in principle, does not pose a risk to the woman or the baby. As the pregnancy progresses, it is assessed whether there is a need to increase the dose, which can reach up to 2 mg per kilogram of the patient’s weight. This dosage is determined by the obstetrician or hematologist. –

Letícia Murta, Journalist MTB 14266 (MG), writes for the website Eu Curto Ser Mãe.

Also see: Pregnancy After Miscarriage – When to Try Again?

Photo: I woz ere