Fertility, Miscarriage & Pregnancy Loss — A GP Explains | NHS Women's Health

Struggling to conceive, or coming to terms with a miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy? In this NHS patient information talk, GP and Women's Health Clinical Lead Dr Leila Hummerstone explains fertility, pregnancy and pregnancy loss — what's normal, what isn't, when to seek help, and what to expect from your GP. Covers preconception care and folic acid, causes of infertility in both partners, miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, molar pregnancy, and what happens through all four trimesters — including the "fourth trimester" recovery period that so often gets overlooked. Made for women, partners and families across South Hambleton & Ryedale, but the information applies wherever you are in the UK. ⚠️ This video discusses miscarriage, baby loss and perinatal mental health, including suicide. Please take care while watching, and see the support links below. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ CHAPTERS 0:00 Welcome & what this video covers 0:53 Why this matters — the numbers 1:47 Preconception care: getting ready for pregnancy 3:10 Folic acid — 400mcg or 5mg? Who needs more 4:37 Are my medicines safe in pregnancy? 5:28 Planning ahead for your mental health 6:20 Long-term conditions, vaccines & Zika virus 7:23 How long does it normally take to get pregnant? 7:39 When should you seek help for fertility? 8:20 Causes of infertility — male and female factors 9:57 Coming off contraception: when does fertility return? 11:02 What to expect at your GP fertility appointment 12:36 Semen analysis — how to get an accurate result 13:43 When will you be referred to fertility services? 14:45 Miscarriage: what it means 16:17 How common is miscarriage? 16:40 Why do miscarriages happen? Risk factors 17:45 Recurrent miscarriage & when it's investigated 18:49 Types of miscarriage explained 20:29 What happens next — EPAU, scans and tests 21:58 Treatment options: expectant, medical & surgical 22:58 Recovery, periods & trying again 23:10 Pregnancy loss support & charities 23:38 Ectopic pregnancy — signs and red flags 24:36 When an ectopic pregnancy is an emergency 25:30 How ectopic pregnancy is treated 26:37 Ectopic pregnancy & future fertility 27:02 Molar pregnancy — rare but important 30:15 Pregnancy: what to expect 31:37 Antenatal & newborn screening timeline 32:32 Your test is positive — what now? 33:23 Working out your due date 34:59 First trimester 36:16 Second trimester 37:32 Third trimester 38:51 Morning sickness & hyperemesis gravidarum 41:09 High blood pressure & pre-eclampsia 43:34 Gestational diabetes 44:46 Anaemia in pregnancy 46:43 The fourth trimester — recovery after birth 49:20 The 6–8 week postnatal check 49:47 Pelvic floor — don't skip this 50:05 Contraception after having a baby 51:42 Birth trauma: asking for a debrief 52:04 Breastfeeding support 52:53 Postnatal mental health 53:53 Cervical screening after pregnancy 54:05 Physical activity & healthy living 54:52 Summary & key takeaways ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ RESOURCES MENTIONED Medicines in pregnancy (bumps / UK Teratology Information Service) → www.medicinesinpregnancy.org Tommy's — pregnancy and baby loss information and midwife helpline → www.tommys.org Sands — stillbirth and neonatal death charity → www.sands.org.uk Saying Goodbye — pregnancy and baby loss support → www.sayinggoodbye.org The Ectopic Pregnancy Trust → www.ectopic.org.uk Pregnancy Sickness Support → www.pregnancysicknesssupport.org.uk Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists — patient information → www.rcog.org.uk/for-the-public Healthier Together / Growing Healthy app — local children's health service La Leche League & IBCLC lactation consultants — breastfeeding support ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ NEED SUPPORT NOW? If you are struggling with your mental health during or after pregnancy, please speak to your midwife, health visitor or GP — they can refer you to the perinatal mental health team. Samaritans — 116 123, free, 24 hours a day NHS 111 — for urgent but non-emergency help 999 — in an emergency ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ This video is general information and is not a substitute for personal medical advice. Always speak to your own GP, midwife or health professional about your individual circumstances. Guidance and services were accurate at the time of recording. Dr Leila Hummerstone is a GP at Pickering Medical Practice and Women's Health Clinical Lead for South Hambleton & Ryedale Primary Care Network (SHaR PCN). We'd love your feedback — use the QR code at the end of the video or get in touch with SHaR PCN. Subscribe for more women's health and patient information videos from our GPs. #Fertility #Miscarriage #WomensHealth