Bleeding during miscarriage can appear brown and resemble coffee grounds. Or it can be pink to bright red. It can alternate between light and heavy or even stop temporarily before starting up again. If you miscarry before you're eight weeks pregnant, it might look the same as a heavy period.
In a miscarriage that happens beyond 6 weeks, more tissue will be expelled. The expelled tissue usually resemble large blood clots. Depending on the point at which the pregnancy stopped developing, the expelled tissue could range in size from as small as a pea to as big or bigger than an orange.
Other signs may include:
At an early stage of pregnancy, miscarriage bleeding can start with light spotting and become heavier, or it may be heavy from the start. The blood might look pinkish, bright red, or brown. You may also feel some cramping.
After an abortion or miscarriage, hCG levels start to go down over the a period of 9-35 days. If you take a pregnancy test within this window, you can get a false-positive result because the test is still detecting the pregnancy hormone and can't tell that the levels are decreasing.
Duration. You know how long and heavy your typical period is. During a miscarriage, bleeding gets heavier and lasts longer than a period. As your cervix starts to dilate, cramping may become more painful than typical period cramping.
Septic Miscarriage: Some miscarriages occur with an infection in the uterus. This is a serious condition that requires urgent treatment to prevent shock and death. With septic miscarriage, the patient usually develops fever and abdominal pain and may have bleeding and discharge with a foul odor.
If you miscarry now, you might notice water coming out of your vagina first, followed by some bleeding and clots. The fetus will be tiny and fully formed. If you see the baby it might be outside the sac by now. It might also be attached to the umbilical cord and the placenta.
A woman early in her pregnancy may have a miscarriage and only experience bleeding and cramping for a few hours. But another woman may have miscarriage bleeding for up to a week. The bleeding can be heavy with clots, but it slowly tapers off over days before stopping, usually within two weeks.
Not all miscarriages are physically painful, but most people have cramping. The cramps are really strong for some people, and light for others (like a period or less). It's also common to have vaginal bleeding and to pass large blood clots up to the size of a lemon.