Miscarriage mums assured 'healthy baby still possible'

Women with repeated miscarriages can be reassured that their chance of having a healthy baby is the same as women who have never miscarried, say experts.

The news comes from a large meeting in Sweden where doctors are discussing the latest advances in fertility medicine.
The findings in over 1,000 women should offer some comfort to the 1% of couples who have lost three or more pregnancies in a row through no known cause.
Often the reasons for recurrent miscarriages cannot be found.
This can be an added source of stress and leave a couple wondering why they were affected.
Renewed hope Most recurrent miscarriages are unexplained, meaning there is no obvious cause, and no treatment to offer.

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We hope that our study will give them hope and encourage them to keep trying for the baby they want so much”

Study author Dr Stefan Kaandorp

Faced with this uncertainty, it can be difficult for couples to decide what action to take.

But researchers say they can now offer couples more accurate information to help them when they are considering whether or not they want to keep trying for a baby.
Two new studies, presented at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology meeting in Stockholm, followed the outcomes of women with unexplained recurrent miscarriage.
The first - a Danish study that involved nearly 1,000 women - found two-thirds went on to have at least one child, mostly within five years of being diagnosed and referred to a recurrent miscarriage clinic, but often within a year of being seen.
The second study, carried out in the Netherlands with 213 women, found more than 70% became pregnant after a year of trying for a baby, rising to over 80% or eight out of 10 after two years of trying.
And over half of all the women in the study gave birth to a healthy baby, within an average wait of 41 weeks to conceive.
Dr Stefan Kaandorp, who led this Dutch research, said: "Our results mean that women with recurrent miscarriage can be reassured that their time to a subsequent conception is not significantly longer than that for fertile women without a history of miscarriage.