Ask The Rabbi

If in fact there was bleeding from the uterus, and it wasn’t just staining, then this does undo the original shivah nekiim. You need a new shivah nekiim beginning with a new hefsek taharah.

I am so sorry to hear about your loss, we wish you much bracha and hatzlacha to have many children in the near future. Assuming there is 100% medical confirmation that there is no heartbeat, then you should follow the doctor’s suggestion to remove the fetus. There are two options to accomplish this: either D&C (scraping of the uterine lining) or taking pills. Depending on the size of the fetus, pills may be the recommended approach. From a purity perspective, from the moment you start bleeding you must observe the regular rules of niddah. Since the loss occurred more than 40 days after conception, the earliest you can immerse in the mikvah is 14 days from the onset of the bleeding. If you have any questions calculating your mikvah schedule, please do not hesitate to call one of our rabbanim at 718-336-0603.

It is quite understandable why someone with a low ovarian reserve would inquire about fertility preservation. From a halachic perspective, it is permissible and possibly even encouraged! I suggest that you contact us at 718-336-0603 to speak with one of our experts to help advise how best to proceed.

It is recommended to perform a thorough cleaning of the vaginal area to clean and remove residual blood before the hefsek tahara, but not for the subsequent bedikot. In order to make sure there is no confusion, let me review the different terms. The Hefsek Tahara refers to the bedika that is typically performed on the 5th day of the period (day 4 for Sefardim). The objective of this bedika is to confirm that the period has ended and allow the woman to begin counting her 7 clean days on the following day. There is another bedika called the Moch Dachuk, which is the bedika that is inserted following the hefsek - but still before sunset - and it remains in the woman for approximately 40 minutes. Assuming both the Hefsek and the Moch do not contain blood, the following day marks the first of her seven clean days. In other words, if an Ashkenazi woman’s period began on Sunday, she would attempt for a Hefsek Tahara and Moch Dachuk on Thursday before sunset. If neither of those 2 bedika clothes have any blood on them, then she is able to begin counting her 7 clean days on Friday and her projected Mikvah night would be the following Thursday night. Back to your question about cleaning the area before the hefsek tahara. The cleaning can be done in whatever way is comfortable for the person, with either a wet cloth or any other way that’s comfortable. One may also perform multiple attempts for a clean hefsek tahara, but it’s important to make sure that one doesn’t do it too many times, as not to irritate the area. Therefore, it’s a good idea to wait in between each Bedikah so that the area has time to recover, remoisten and won’t get too dry which would lead to bleeding when irritated. The truth is there are some Poskim who require one to wait a little bit between each attempted Hefsek Taharah, but others don’t require this wait time, especially if a Moch Dachuk will be used.