Pregnancy and Car Wrecks

Snackbar

Alright, H/A. I need your help here.

My girlfriend was recently in a minor fender-bender where the other motorist drove head-on into her rear-passenger quarter panel. It was by no means a serious accident and everyone walked away unharmed. Her rear passenger wheel ended up with some interesting alignment (it was "positively pronating" if you will) and a dented quarter panel, while the other driver's car had some scratches and a piece of chrome trim that fell off. Really nothing serious.

So here's where the trouble sets in - the other driver was a man with his wife and child in the vehicle as well. They both seemed to be fine at first glance, but apparently the man's wife was 20 weeks pregnant and has now lost her baby.

I am by no means an expert on pregnancy, but it really doesn't seem to me that the loss of her child and such a minor accident would be related. I'm sure having your body jarred when you're carrying isn't going to help matters, but I'm hoping that one of you nice, insightful folk might have some hard-facts about that stage of pregnancy to help my reassure my girlfriend that it isn't her fault. She didn't cause the accident in the first place, but I can definitely understand how she'd feel at least partially responsible for the incident.

What kind of survival rate are there for babies at that stage of pregnancy? Is it commonplace for a low-speed accident to cause this kind of thing?

Thanks in advance for any advice you guys can give.

TLDR - Girlfriend was in a low-speed accident that wasn't her fault. Other motorist had a wife in the car who was pregnant that has lost her child. What are the odds?

matt has a problem

There's no real way to know what caused it. The fact that even if you do absolutely everything right you can still miscarry means the accident may or may not have been the (or a) cause. Above all though, just keep reminding your girlfriend it wasn't her fault, there was absolutely nothing she could've done to avoid being hit like that. It doesn't make what happened any better of course, but neither does blaming herself.

underdonk

There is no way she will ever know for sure. Citing statistics is essentially meaningless. If she's having serious trouble with this she needs to talk with a therapist (or a close and trusted friend - you even!) and work this issue out.

Improvolone

1) How the fuck did she even find out about the miscarriage?
2) A lot can terminate a pregnancy, but from sheer physical force it takes more than you might expect. While it may have been what put her over the edge (unless she slammed into something I guess), there was probably a lot more going on (stress can do a ton). She might have even been high risk for something else.

truck-a-sauras

don't exactly have advice, but a pregnant friend of mine recently got into a fender bender. She had some minor neck issues and went to the hospital. They kept her there for from like 6PM - 3AM doing an endless battery of tests relating to the baby, placenta detaching, etc....

she kept insisting only her neck hurt and didn't feel any problems elsewhere, but the hospital was very concerned with her losing the baby or possibly going into labor. And her accident seemed similar of an accident where each car only had slight dents and scratches at most.

I'd say given how concerned the hospital was about her, that in your scenario it is likely that the fender bender could be enough trauma to cause it.

Wezoin

I don't have the medical knowledge to answer this question - but from an ethical side of it if the accident wasn't your girlfriends fault, then she bares no responsibility for the repercussions of it.

Think about it this way (horrible metaphor but it's the best I could come up with) -

If that guy were swinging a baseball bat, and your girlfriend and his wife both accidentally stood too close, just glanced your girlfriend slightly and then continued on to hit his wife in the stomach and kill the baby, would it be your girlfriend's fault?

Not at all, you'd both be thinking "Wow that guys a jerk for not being more careful around his unborn child, and his wife should have been more careful to stand back while he was swinging"

PeregrineFalcon

truck-a-sauras wrote: »

don't exactly have advice, but a pregnant friend of mine recently got into a fender bender. She had some minor neck issues and went to the hospital. They kept her there for from like 6PM - 3AM doing an endless battery of tests relating to the baby, placenta detaching, etc....

she kept insisting only her neck hurt and didn't feel any problems elsewhere, but the hospital was very concerned with her losing the baby or possibly going into labor. And her accident seemed similar of an accident where each car only had slight dents and scratches at most.

I'd say given how concerned the hospital was about her, that in your scenario it is likely that the fender bender could be enough trauma to cause it.

Any sort of collision involving a pregnant woman will necessitate that kind of reaction and care. I'm surprised they didn't keep her overnight.

A friend of my wife's got bumped while she was in a van in a parking lot. She wasn't moving; the van wasn't even running, and the paramedics still insisted that she go to the hospital and stay there for 24h.

Snackbar

Thanks for all the input, guys. I really do appreciate it.

I suppose the best course of action is going to be just reassuring her as much as she needs that the accident wasn't her fault and that there's a very real possibility the miscarriage had nothing to do with the accident anyway. That plus just making sure she knows that I'm definitely here for her to talk to if she wants/needs should be enough, I hope.

I was just concerned because I could see how that would definitely fuck with your head and I don't want her to go through any bouts of depression or something as a result. With my logic and statistically driven mind, I thought it might be helpful to be able to say, "You know, women who are 20 weeks pregnant have a 57% chance to miscarry anyway. It's really pretty likely she would've lost it anyway."

*Note: I realize that having such statistics thrown at you definitely isn't the most cheerful or nice thing to mention, but at the same time, I just want to help stave off any guilt she may be placing on herself for what happened.

Thanks again for the advice, folks. You have always come through for me.


PS
Wezoin - That is a pretty bad metaphor, but I definitely appreciate what you were getting at and for having the wherewithal to publish anything concerning a man hitting his pregnant wife in the belly with a baseball bat. You must be man enough to wear a fanny pack.

Everywhereasign

Also keep in mind, that in general the human race has been around for quite some time. If minor jarring, falls, bumps were enough to terminate a pregnancy, we really wouldn't have made it this far. It was most likely one of hundred of other reasons that has little or nothing to do with the car accident.

All that being said, I thought this was going to be a question of "In minor car accident, should pregnant wife go to hospital?" in which case, you'd likely get a resounding 'yes' from the crowd.

We're a fickle bunch I guess. I hope she doesn't beat herself up about it. Be there for her, let her talk about what she's feeling.

Improvolone

If she was wearing a seatbelt, then her chest would have experienced most of the impact. This should be a nice physical thing for your girlfriend to calm down over.

Chanus

Stress alone can cause a miscarriage, amongst a billion other non-physical factors.

Was she so traumatized by the accident? Probably not, but it could have compounded existing stress.

joshofalltrades

This exact same thing happened to my wife (as in she was the pregnant one).

She didn't miscarry as a result and every doctor we saw essentially said the chances of a minor collision causing a miscarriage were close to zero. My wife had miscarried prior to this baby.

Apparently there's a whole lot of insulation in there, what with the fluid and all that stuff. Unless the airbag was pointed straight at her belly I'd say it's probably not your girlfriend's fault.

Chanus

To clarify my point, maybe:

As to culpability, it would be exceptionally difficult to prove that a car accident without any other major injuries would be enough to cause the miscarriage in and of itself.

Nakatomi2010

Sudden jarring can certainly cause a miscarriage, let alone a drastic increase in stress. Should your significant other be concerned? Not really, if they hit her it's the other woman's husband who should be getting stressed and freaked as it is technically his fault.

Best way to look at this would be if you were in a grocery store and you were pushing your cart, then someone hit you with theirs from behind and a bottle of wine popped out of the cart and hit the floor, thus bursting into pieces. Were you involved in this accident? Sure, but it's their fault for hitting you. The other woman's husband is most likely going to be more down about this than your significant other. Reassure it that it is purely not her fault.

Unless she is to blame for the wreck, then it's possible she's partly to blame as accidents increase stress, which if she was spotting or on the vege of one, she got pushed over the edge...

In the end, who knows...

mts

well if she was hit by them its not her fault. its not like she thought hey tonight for fun i am going to get in the way of some pregnant ladies car and see what happens