A woman's age and history of pregnancy could affect her risk of miscarriage | Life

OSLO, March 22 – A new European study has found that a woman's risk of miscarriage can be influenced by her age, pregnancy history and complications.

Conducted by researchers from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, the study used the National Health Registries to collect information on all pregnancies in Norway between 2009 and 2013.

The researchers found that there had been a total of 421,201 pregnancies during this period and that, given induced abortions, the overall miscarriage rate was 12.8%.

The risk of miscarriage of a woman was then estimated based on her age and her history of pregnancy.

The results, published in the BMJ, showed that the woman's age seemed to affect her risk of miscarriage, with the lowest risk being among women aged 25 to 29 (10%). It then increased rapidly after the age of 30, reaching 53% among women aged 45 and over.

Experiencing an earlier miscarriage also increased the risk of experiencing another one. After miscarriage, the risk of another was increased by half, after two, the risk was multiplied by two and, after three consecutive miscarriages, the risk was four times higher.

Complications of pregnancy, including the previous birth ending in premature birth, cesarean delivery, or if the woman had diabetes during pregnancy, also modestly increased the risk of miscarriage.

The risk was also slightly higher for women who were born small.

However, pre-eclampsia of the previous pregnancy, which is abnormally high blood pressure, has not been badociated with an increased risk of miscarriage.

Although miscarriages are common, the researchers noted that it was difficult to determine what could influence the risk of miscarriages due to the lack of consistent data. Norway is one of the few countries where data on miscarriages have been regularly recorded since 2008.

However, as this is an observational study, the team notes that they can not establish any cause-effect relationship, even though the results provide a more accurate estimate of the risk of miscarriage related to mother's age and suggest that previous pregnancy complications may also play an important role.

"More focused studies of these badociations may provide a better understanding of the common underlying causes of pregnancy complications and miscarriages," they conclude. – AFP-Relaxnews