marie@harvard.ARPA (Marie Desjardins) (11/15/84)
Jerry Aguirre says concerning miscarriages (in response to a discussion in net.kids): > Before you say it won't happen to me: The statistics I hear are 1 out > of 4 pregnancies. I would say that a 25% chance of loosing the baby is > pretty bad odds. It seems to be one of those things that "isn't > discussed". This seems ridiculously high to me, at least based on the number of people I have known who have been pregnant and miscarried. Does anybody know the correct figures? Marie desJardins marie@harvard
fhgunn@watmath.UUCP (Lynn Conway) (11/18/84)
According to "Our Bodies Our Selves", writen by the Boston Women's Health Book Collective, one in six pregnancies end in miscarriage. Seventy-five percent of these miscarriages occur in the first twelve weeks of the pregnancy.
friesen@psivax.UUCP (Stanley Friesen) (11/20/84)
In article <153@harvard.ARPA> marie@harvard.ARPA (Marie Desjardins) writes: >Jerry Aguirre says concerning miscarriages (in response to a discussion >in net.kids): > >> Before you say it won't happen to me: The statistics I hear are 1 out >> of 4 pregnancies. I would say that a 25% chance of loosing the baby is >> pretty bad odds. It seems to be one of those things that "isn't >> discussed". > >This seems ridiculously high to me, at least based on the number of >people I have known who have been pregnant and miscarried. Does anybody >know the correct figures? > > Marie desJardins > marie@harvard I do not know the "correct" figures, BUT the figure cited could be technically correct and still highly misleading. That is pregnancies could fall into two(or more) categories with regard to miscarriages; a high risk category, in which a high percentage miscarry; and a low risk category, in which there are almost no miscarriages. Then the *averaged* rate of miscarriage over both categories could well be as high as stated.
werner@aecom.UUCP (11/20/84)
> > Before you say it won't happen to me: The statistics I hear are 1 out > > of 4 pregnancies. > This seems ridiculously high to me, at least based on the number of > people I have known who have been pregnant and miscarried. I checked this out in Moore, The Developing Human (Clinical Embryology) and they don't seem to mention this number. However, you may want to extrapolate from these numbers: Malformations are observed in 2.7% of newborn infants. Congenital malformations are detected in additional 3% during infancy. Not all of these are serious, however. The 1 in 4 figure may come from including pregnancies with complications and elective abortions, but the actual figure is probably closer to 5%, not 25%. If I see more on the subject that contradicts this, I'll post it. P.S. Hi Marie! (desjardins@harvard (sp)) -- Craig Werner !philabs!aecom!werner What do you expect? Watermelons are out of season!
susan@vaxwaller.UUCP (Susan Finkelman) (11/21/84)
> Jerry Aguirre says concerning miscarriages (in response to a discussion > in net.kids): > > > Before you say it won't happen to me: The statistics I hear are 1 out > > of 4 pregnancies. I would say that a 25% chance of loosing the baby is > > pretty bad odds. It seems to be one of those things that "isn't > > discussed". > > This seems ridiculously high to me, at least based on the number of > people I have known who have been pregnant and miscarried. Does anybody > know the correct figures? > > Marie desJardins > marie@harvard That's about right according to what I was told when I 1st realized I was pregnant. However, my physician did say that those statistics included a great many early miscarriages in women who may not have even realized they were pregnant. I guess that means that it's a guess.
carter@gatech.UUCP (Carter Bullard) (11/24/84)
Consider that a great number of miscarriages occur without the mother
ever knowing that conception had taken place,ie. within the first 6 weeks
of pregnancy. The figure that I have seen for prenatal survivability of
humans, at least in medical embryology texts, is around 45-65%.
It is likely that every sexually active female will have at least one
undetected miscarriage in their lifetime.
--
Carter Bullard
ICS, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta GA 30332
CSNet:Carter @ Gatech ARPA:Carter.Gatech @ CSNet-relay.arpa
uucp:...!{akgua,allegra,amd,ihnp4,hplabs,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!carterjhh@ihldt.UUCP (John Haller) (11/26/84)
The number of miscarriages being high may be because there is a significant number of spontaneous abortions, usually before the woman knows she is pregnant. Whether this is included in the miscarriage rate may have a significant affect. I don't remember the numbers, but a large number of fertilized eggs don't become babies.