Pregnancy Loss Causes / Risk Factors and What to Do for Recurrent Miscarriages
By Krissi Danielsson, About.com Guide to Miscarriage / Pregnancy Loss
After recovering from the initial shock of a pregnancy loss, you may feel an intense drive to understand why the miscarriage or stillbirth happened and what you can do to reduce your risk in future pregnancies. Doctors cannot always understand why specific miscarriages and stillbirths happen, but they do have some theories on causes and risk factors.
Risk Factors
Not everyone who has risk factors will have a pregnancy loss, and you can still have a miscarriage even if you do everything right and have no risk factors. Risk factors also are not the same thing as miscarriage causes -- some risk factors are purely factors that are correlated with increased risk of pregnancy loss but may not actually cause miscarriages. Thus, miscarriage and stillbirth risk factors can be a dubious subject.
Miscarriage Causes
First-trimester miscarriages can occur for a variety of reasons, but doctors agree that chromosomal abnormalities are by far the most frequent cause of sporadic, one-time miscarriages. Other causes might include bacterial and viral illnesses or ectopic pregnancy.
- Overview of Miscarriage Causes
- Why Chromosomal Abnormalities Cause Miscarriages
- Ectopic Pregnancy
- Bacterial / Viral Infections
Stillbirth / Late Pregnancy Loss Causes
More than 70% of stillbirths and other late pregnancy losses are never explained, but doctors know of several risk factors and possible causes for these devastating pregnancy losses.
Recurrent Miscarriages
Recurrent pregnancy loss can feel like a cruel twist of fate -- one way doctors reassure women after a first miscarriage is to say that it was probably random bad luck and everything will be fine next time. Multiple miscarriages can leave women feeling weary, depressed, and desperately in need of answers.
