OBs can tell you've been pregnant before?

[Anonymous]

It was mentioned in passing on another thread that an OB can tell that you've been pregnant before. Is it true, and if so, how? What about if, say, there was an early miscarriage that happened naturally without any surgical intervention? Is there something about a pregnancy that forever changes the appearance/"feel"/shape etc of the uterus?

This is an academic discussion, btw. I've only been pregnant once, and was delivered by a c-section, so I couldn't hide the fact even if I wanted to. Just curious, really.

[Anonymous]

the cervical os definitely flattens with a vaginal childbirth, and the cervix sofens and turns bluish with a current pregnancy, but I'm not sure about miscarriage or c-section.

[Anonymous]

I do know that baby's blood enters the mother's bloodstream. (This is why Rh is a problem in some pregnancies--if the mother is Rh negative and the father is Rh positive, the baby may be Rh positive. Then the mother's body is sensitized against the Rh factor.)

I believe that this is more of a potential problem during subsequent pregnancies when the mother is already producing the antibodies against the Rh.

[Anonymous]

They can only tell if there was a recent abortion, miscarrage or successful pregnancy (an enlarged uterus or uterine scaring). The scaring goes away after a normal cycle (beause the whole uterine wall regenerates) and after a miscarrage or successful pregnancy, it takes just a few months for the uterus to get back to a normal size. So, after a few months, they can't tell....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They can only tell if there was a recent abortion, miscarrage or successful pregnancy (an enlarged uterus or uterine scaring). The scaring goes away after a normal cycle (beause the whole uterine wall regenerates) and after a miscarrage or successful pregnancy, it takes just a few months for the uterus to get back to a normal size. So, after a few months, they can't tell....

Correct. In addition, it depends on how long the woman was pregnant. If it was a chemical pregnancy where the umbilical cord didn't even have a chance to attach to the uterine wall and it (fetus? cell ball? blastocyte? Not sure of the terminology) was discharged at the next cycle than a routine exam will not reveal this.