Non-medically attended miscarriage in young teenager, 1970s.
Time period: late 1970s Location: Western setting.
A 14 year old girl who is not very cluey wakes one night with extreme gut pains, then to her horror, a gush of blood. I'm talking puddle-on-the-mattress amount of blood - probably about 500mls.
She races to the toilet where she muffles her moans. Shortly afterwards, something large falls in the toilet - a dead fetus at about the 4-5 month mark (enough so that it's obvious what it is, but not so much that she was showing). She breaks the umbilical cord, cleans her self up as much as possible and disposes of the body. She also gets as much blood out of the mattress as she can, and sleeps on top of towels for a few days while it dries.
Over the next few weeks she bleeds a lot, and loses what are obviously clots and placenta, including the other end of the umbilical cord. No-one else knows.
Questions:
a) What short and long term effects might she suffer that don't include infection (if she gets an infection, the game is up)?
b) How long would it take for her body to recover from the blood loss?
c) How long until she stopped bleeding?
d) If she buried the fetus under a pile of compost in the back of the garden, (moist warm climate) would it be completely decomposed after a year, would bones be left, or would it still be recognisable.
She didn't realise she was pregnant - the story includes a coercive older sibling and the girl not realising the consequences.
Research done: medical papers and publications about hidden teen pregnancies, giving birth with no medical attention, ditto miscarriage.
A 14 year old girl who is not very cluey wakes one night with extreme gut pains, then to her horror, a gush of blood. I'm talking puddle-on-the-mattress amount of blood - probably about 500mls.
She races to the toilet where she muffles her moans. Shortly afterwards, something large falls in the toilet - a dead fetus at about the 4-5 month mark (enough so that it's obvious what it is, but not so much that she was showing). She breaks the umbilical cord, cleans her self up as much as possible and disposes of the body. She also gets as much blood out of the mattress as she can, and sleeps on top of towels for a few days while it dries.
Over the next few weeks she bleeds a lot, and loses what are obviously clots and placenta, including the other end of the umbilical cord. No-one else knows.
Questions:
a) What short and long term effects might she suffer that don't include infection (if she gets an infection, the game is up)?
b) How long would it take for her body to recover from the blood loss?
c) How long until she stopped bleeding?
d) If she buried the fetus under a pile of compost in the back of the garden, (moist warm climate) would it be completely decomposed after a year, would bones be left, or would it still be recognisable.
She didn't realise she was pregnant - the story includes a coercive older sibling and the girl not realising the consequences.
Research done: medical papers and publications about hidden teen pregnancies, giving birth with no medical attention, ditto miscarriage.