Strollerderby : pregnancy loss

They Say: Miscarriage Means More Risk

Amy Kuras — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:08:00 GMT

For women who’ve experienced the crushing blow of a miscarriage, one of the small comforts is the conventional wisdom that a single pregnancy loss doesn’t bode ill for future pregnancies.
A University of Aberdeen (Scotland) study of more than 32,000 expectant mothers showed an increased risk of many pregnancy complications among women who has suffered even one miscarriage.

They were 3.3 times more likely to have preeclampsia, twice as likely to have an induced labor, and almost six times more likely to need intervention like the use of forceps at birth.

Continuing the litany of suckage, they were 1.7 times more likely to show symptoms of a miscarriage but not actually lose the pregnancy, 1.3 more times likely to have bleeding after 24 weeks in the next pregnancy, and also had increased risk of a premature baby and of having a child with a low birth weight.

It should be noted that the risk of all of these things overall is pretty low, so an increased risk at that level is a concern but doesn’t mean your pregnancy is doomed to difficulty if you’re among the 20 percent of women who have suffered a miscarriage.

What’s interesting about this is that most research has focused on recurrent preganancy loss, defined as three or more miscarriages in a row. Most doctors won’t even begin to look at underlying causes for miscarriage until that’s happened. That’s an awful lot of heartbreak to go through before getting some answers, so hopefully this study will lead to women getting additional support in their pregnancies sooner rather than later.

Acupuncture Might Help You Get Pregnant

Madeline Holler — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 18:53:00 GMT

This might be some good news for people struggling to get pregnant: acupuncture, administered shortly after embryos have been implanted, might actually boost the chances of a viable pregnancy. The bad news is that it's acupuncture and, therefore, slightly fringe. (The good news response to that close-minded, Western-medicine-centric statement is that the study of acupunture's effects on fertility treatments is actually being done by scientists.)

Where were we? Right. The findings are far from conclusive, but here's what the researchers are thinking:

Acupuncture involves placing very thin needles at specific points on the body to try to control pain and reduce stress. In fertility treatment, it is thought to increase blood flow to the uterus, relax the cervix and inhibit "fight or flight" stress hormones that can make it tougher for an embryo to implant.

A pool of seven studies, which included more than 1,300 women in four countries, was looked at. Only three of those studies showed positive results, but with smaller studies in the pool, there was a 65 percent boost in the odds of a pregnancy outcomes for fertility treatments that included acupuncture.

Experts warn against focusing on that number, because this type of analysis with pooled results is not proof that acupuncture helps at all, let alone by how much. IVF results in pregnancy about 35 percent of the time. Adding acupuncture might boost that to around 45 percent, the researchers said.

Still, it's something, right?

Pregcellent: Women React Strongly To the Caffeine-Miscarriage Study

Kelly Mills — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 13:29:00 GMT

A friend of mine had an appointment for artificial insemination, and the clinic told her she should go on bedrest for three days following the procedure to avoid any risk of miscarriage. Well, my friend looked up a bunch of studies, and according to her research, bedrest not only doesn't reduce miscarriage risk after insemination, it has just slightly higher odds of miscarriage. But I can see why the clinic advised this: They want to avoid the idea that any maternal action resulted in a pregnancy loss, and in a way it's exactly how we treat pregnancy nowadays. Don't drink at all. Be careful exercising. Avoid sushi and brie and meat that isn't cooked all the way through. And now, quit coffee or tea, or at the very least, cut way back, or you'll have to live with the fact that if only you had been willing to give it up, you might have had a viable pregnancy. All this, despite the fact that the vast majority of miscarriages are likely the result of genetic or chromosonal issues that mean the fetus would never make it to term, even if you lived in a plastic bubble and only consumed special nutrients and filtered water.

And this is just one of the things that has raised the ire of lots of women towards the latest study connecting higher caffeine consumption to an increased risk of miscarriage. The research has been called out for the small sample size and the methodology of interviewing women post-miscarriage about caffeine consumption. And it is also raising the hackles of women fed up with being told they should do this and that or they are selfish moms. The fact that environmental toxins and pollutants have not received the same coverage was pointed out, as was the fact that some of the taboo behaviors are the norm in countries with comparable miscarriage rates. And lots of other stuff too, because I think many ladies are at a breaking point with being advised against things that they like having in their lives, pregnant or not.

Look, there are certainly things that have strong connections to issues in pregnancy, and most of those (like smoking) are pretty obvious because they have bad repercussions for non-pregnant people too. And of course, even those known hazards are not a guarantee of problems for the individual, believe it or not. But the more tenuous connections to things like coffee are getting to be a bit much. And I think what's sad about it is that almost every woman I know who had a pregnancy loss blamed herself on some level, or at least questioned her own behavior, and I include myself in that number. And it's sad because the recrimination comes in situations where most likely no one could have done anything to prevent the miscarriage, not unless they had the ability to change the chromosonal makeup of a fetus that was never going to survive.

Miscarriage Myths Persist: Like That You Had Something To Do With It

Kelly Mills — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 19:01:00 GMT

A recent survey of women found that myths about the causes of miscarriage are still firmly with us. See, the majority of miscarriages are the result of genetic or chromosonal abnormalities with the fetus, hormonal issues, or problems with the uterus or placenta. Of course alcohol and drugs are factors in some cases, but for the most part, we're talking about straight-up medical issues, beyond anyone's control. However, a good third-plus of the women surveyed thought that a pregnant woman's bad mood could negatively affect her baby. I'm living proof here that foul moods do not prevent mothers from carrying babies to term.

Couple of other myths for you: "One in four of these women thought a pregnant woman's exposure to upsetting situations could hurt her unborn child, and one in five believed excessive exercise could cause a woman to miscarry." The tendency to believe in folkloric miscarriage stories was linked more to the respondent's education level than anything else, and luckily those who had experienced pregnancy loss were more likely to disbelieve the myths, indicating that they probably got some education on the issue through their experiences. While survey folks did not specifically assign blame to the moms in cases of miscarriage (Only "ten percent suggested pregnant women are responsible for their miscarriages, and 3 percent said mothers should be blamed for their babies' birth defects") there is something to the fact that people were willing to peg stress, upsetting situations, and bad moods as causes of pregnancy loss. Here, I'll say it loud, one more time: The miscarriage was not your fault.