FRIDAY, Aug. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Women who have a miscarriage in their first pregnancy and get pregnant again within six months have better odds of a successful second pregnancy than with a longer interpregnancy interval, according to a study published Aug. 5 in BMJ.
Eleanor R. Love, of the University of Aberdeen in the United Kingdom, and colleagues studied 30,937 women admitted to Scottish hospitals during 1981 to 2000 who had a miscarriage in their first recorded pregnancy and became pregnant again. Primary outcomes were incidence of miscarriage, live birth, pregnancy termination, stillbirth, or ectopic pregnancy during the second pregnancy.
The researchers found that women who got pregnant again within six months of their miscarriage were less likely to have another miscarriage (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 0.66), termination (OR, 0.43), or have an ectopic pregnancy (OR, 0.48) than women with a six- to 12-month interval between pregnancies. Women who did not conceive again for more than 24 months were more likely to have a pregnancy termination (OR, 2.40) or an ectopic pregnancy (OR, 1.97). The women who conceived again within six months and had a live birth also were less likely to have a cesarean section (OR, 0.90), preterm delivery (OR, 0.89), or a low birth weight infant (OR, 0.84) than women with a six- to 12-month interpregnancy interval, though they were more likely to have induced labor (OR, 1.08).
"Women who conceive within six months of an initial miscarriage have the best reproductive outcomes and lowest complication rates in a subsequent pregnancy," the authors write.
Abstract
Full Text
