A missed miscarriage or silent miscarriage occurs when a fetus or embryo has died but no bleeding or loss of fetal tissue has yet taken place. Like other types of miscarriages, missed miscarriages occur unexpectedly before 20 weeks of pregnancy.

This is known as a missed miscarriage, or silent miscarriage. It’s called a missed miscarriage because you won’t realise that anything has gone wrong. You may not have had any of the usual signs of miscarriage, such as pain or bleeding.