miscarriage

Examples of miscarriage in the following topics:

• Introduction to Pregnancy and Human Development

  • The first trimester carries the highest risk of miscarriage (natural death of embryo or fetus).
  • An in-progress pregnancy, as well as abortions, miscarriages, or stillbirths, account for parity values being less than the gravida number.

• Abortion

  • An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced.
  • The degree of force, if severe, can cause serious internal injuries without necessarily succeeding in inducing miscarriage.

• Anatomical Changes

  • At the beginning of the fetal stage, the risk of miscarriage decreases sharply.
  • Once pregnancy moves into the second trimester, the risks of miscarriage and birth defects drops drastically.

• Prenatal Diagnostic Tests

  • Since chorionic villus sampling is performed earlier in the pregnancy than amniocentesis, typically during the first trimester, it can reasonably be expected that there will be a higher rate of miscarriage after chorionic villus sampling than after amniocentesis.
  • Because of the risk of miscarriage and fetal damage associated with amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling procedures, many women prefer to first undergo screening so they can find out if the fetus' risk of birth defects is high enough to justify the risks of invasive testing.

• Ectopic Pregnancy

  • Tubal abortion is a common type of miscarriage.

• Infertility

  • Couples with primary infertility have never been able to conceive, while, secondary infertility is difficulty conceiving after already having conceived (and either carried the pregnancy to term or had a miscarriage).