Losing a baby

Any loss of the fetus before 20 weeks is considered a miscarriage so although most happen in the first trimester (12-13 weeks), a miscarriage (actually called spontaneous abortion) is plausible at 4 months. The reasons seems plausible enough as well.

At that time, the fetus would be developed enough to recognize as a baby but it would weigh under 3 ounces or so.

Either the fetus would pass during the miscarriage. If not and even if it did - to be certain that it was all out of the womb - a D and C would be performed in most cases.

Hope that helps.

Idea on size: http://www.babycenter.com/100_fetal-development_5214615.bc

As for miscarriage due to traumatic blood loss, remember everything the baby depends on to live and grow comes from the mother. The mother's blood carries all the nutrients and though the baby's blood and the mother's blood never touch, it does take nutrients from it, in fact there is no other source. You can miscarry from becoming dehydrated or severely malnutrioned because the blood isn't carrying enough for you and the baby. Here's a more indepth link.

http://health.howstuffworks.com/miscarriage1.htm

Severe anemia wouldn't be expected to cause a miscarriage (I'm an ob, high-risk specialist). The baby would die when the mother does, not usually before.

"Four months pregnant" is not very specific. Women having miscarriages after about 14 weeks go through mini-labor. At twenty weeks, it's very much like labor, and the baby looks like real baby, only small. (About a pound.)

Just to help you out with the actual physical stuff - I am 17 weeks pregnant right now. Most people might not say "hey you are pregnant!" yet, but it's obvious my stomach sticks out a bit and I can no longer fit into any regular pants. I can't sleep on my stomach at all. I have just begun to feel the baby moving around inside of me, kicking, turning over, etc. I've also just had an ultrasound where I saw all the baby's parts and it looked entirely formed to me. We were able to find out it was a boy. If I miscarried right now, I'm certain it would involve contractions of some sort, a lot of blood, and definitely a placenta. (Unless it didn't all come out - then D&C would be necessary.)

I second what Palmfrond said about anemia not being able to cause fetal death prior to the mother. I'm thin and if I do not make sure I eat very regularly (every few hours), and sufficient amounts, the baby takes whatever it needs from my system. It really is like a little vampire. I had one day where I felt really sick and did not eat hardly anything, and I paid for it by being exhausted and blacking out every time I stood up for the next couple of days. Just think about all of the women in countries where tons of people are starving who have babies.

Psychologically, I think it would be incredibly devastating to lose the baby at this point. I was at risk for miscarriage early in my pregnancy, and honestly it didn't bother me. I thought, whatever will be will be. Now that the baby has grown, and I have seen it several times on an ultrasound, and I know what the sex is - it's like all of those maternal instincts have settled in. I'm actually having nightmares now where I miscarry and freak out. I find myself thinking, if I miscarried, as horrific as it would be, I think I would need to hold the baby to get any sense of closure - because it is REAL to me. My understanding is that various women "bond" at different points - sometimes when they find out they are pregnant, sometimes when they feel it move, and sometimes not until it is born. I suspect a lot of women are like me, because having something move inside of you is VERY REAL.

There are possiblities of losing your child at your sixth month,
But regarding Jonightshade i will like yu to think positive.
padma

It is very difficult to cause a miscarriage, as many women who have tried to abort themselves have learned. The only thing that sort of works is penetrating trauma (gunshot, coathanger) and that sort of thing usually has pretty severe effects on the mother (death, near-death from infection)

I don't know much about vampires (not there are many FACTS to know...) but what if the vamp gave the pg mom an infection of some kind instead, which is transferred through the blood-sucking ritual?

Maybe he's a carrier (of germs) though he can't get them, of course, since he's "undead." Does he brush his fangs at night? (just kidding; your story sounds rather more serious than that!)

Best of luck.

Hmm...this is tough. Does the miscarriage have to be caused from the vampire feeding thing in your story? Is it essential to the plot? If not, I would suggest just having her miscarry during this time, and she can wonder if the vampire caused it. As someone who has miscarried, women often try and figure out what they did wrong or what could have caused it. There is often no answer.

A pregnant woman can also go through a very bad pregnancy and still have a healthy, normal child. Most of the risks involve the pg woman, not the unborn fetus, which is a good thing because we can withstand much more than a baby!

Now...if you had the pregnant woman die for a brief period of time and then revived, this could work.

Miscarriages (or still births) can occur at any time during the pregnancy. Often there is no reason that can be determined by medicine (even in cases of still birth where they were much further along than 4 months). Certainly if a vampire were feeding on a woman and she miscarried, she would blame it on the vampire. It's unlikely anyone would ever be able to prove that wasn't the reason, and, like ellisnation said, she would want a reason.

The physical symptoms at 16 weeks would be much milder than childbirth because the fetus is still so small. The cervix doesn't have to dilate much to expel it. Severe cramping and heavy bleeding would be the main symptoms, usually the worst of it doesn't last more than a day, with residual cramping and lighter bleeding for some days afterwards. She may or may not be aware of the fetus passing. If you really want to research it, the forums at mothering.com have a pregnancy loss section where women have posted many real-life accounts of miscarriage at different stages of pregnancy. Heres the link to their forums: http://www.mothering.com/discussions/

Hmmm....what if the vampire, as he feeds, releases some sort of serum into the maternal bloodstream that causes a blood clotting cascade that then causes a placental abruption or some sort of other placental pathology?