Are more women losing their babies in late pregnancy?

Sadly, Kelly Brook has lost her baby five months into her pregnancy. The model and actress is not the only celebrity to have suffered the trauma of a late miscarriage in recent months. In February, Britain’s Got Talent judge Amanda Holden, 40, lost a baby two months before she was due to give birth. She had also suffered a miscarriage the previous year. Last November, 25-year-old singer Lily Allen faced the same tragedy six months into her pregnancy. In 2008, she had a miscarriage when she was four months pregnant.

So is the number of miscarriages among British women rising? Or are we simply more aware of the problem because high-profile celebrities have courageously told of their terrible loss? Recent research published in medical journal The Lancet shows Britain has one of the worst records for stillbirth, ranking 33 out of 35 high-income countries. Eleven babies are stillborn every day in Britain.

Losing a baby after 24 weeks of pregnancy - when the baby could survive in an incubator - is classed as a stillbirth. Before that, it is a miscarriage. Every day, 290 British women experience a miscarriage. Professor Lesley Regan, head of the department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at St Mary’s Hospital, London, says there has been an increase in the number of reported miscarriages.

‘This is partly because the issue of miscarriage has become more visible,’ she says. ‘In my mother’s generation, you didn’t talk about that sort of thing. ‘Also, in the past, women often didn’t know they were pregnant early on because you could take a pregnancy test only in hospital. This means many early miscarriages went unnoticed.’

The advent of home pregnancy tests and a more open society have seen a huge rise in the number of reported miscarriages. However, it is also likely that the actual number of miscarriages has increased. This is largely because of the increase in the number of women having babies later in life.

A woman aged 30 has a 12 per cent risk of miscarriage. But in her early 40s, that rises to 41 per cent. Over the age of 45, it shoots up to 75 per cent. ‘Miscarriage rises with maternal age - and more women are having babies later,’ says Prof Regan. ‘Early miscarriages (before 13 weeks) are often down to chromosomal abnormalities in the embryo. They are more likely to be a one-off.’

To read more go to

Women warned: Don't delay the next try following a miscarriage

After the trauma of a miscarriage many women take a break to recover before they begin to try again for a baby.
But they may in fact be increasing their risk of having another pregnancy with complications, research has found. Women who conceive within six months of a miscarriage have the best chance of a healthy pregnancy with the lowest likelihood of another miscarriage, according to the British study. The team from Aberdeen University analysed data for almost 31,000 women who had suffered a miscarriage and fallen pregnant again.

Those who conceived within six months after a miscarriage were 44 per cent less likely to have a second one than those who had an interval of six to 12 months before falling pregnant again.

They were also 52 per cent less likely to have an ectopic pregnancy - where the foetus lodges in a fallopian tube and has to be removed - or a termination.

The study found women who conceived within six months were 10 per cent less likely to need a Caesarean or to have a premature baby, and 16 per cent less likely to have a low birthweight baby.

Women with an interval of more than two years were around twice as likely to have an ectopic second pregnancy or a termination. The study, published online in the British Medical Journal, concludes: 'Women who conceive within six months of an initial miscarriage have the best reproductive outcomes and lowest complication rates in a subsequent pregnancy.

To read more go to http://bit.ly/aGO9KQ

Woman gives birth after four miscarriages by getting a 'Bionic' cervix

A lawyer who struggled to have a baby for seven years has now given birth to a healthy little girl after being fitted with a 'bionic' cervix. Janett Walker, 41, suffered four miscarriages and lost a premature baby because her cervix was too weak to support an unborn baby.
Doctors 'clamped' the neck of her uterus using a synthetic material called mersilene, to stop a foetus from falling through.

The operation allowed the lawyer to carry her baby Ainka, meaning 'cherished one' to 37 weeks before she gave birth by Caesarean section in June. Janett, who gave birth at Liverpool Women's Hospital, said: 'I just can't believe it. I wake up in the morning sometimes and think my beautiful baby was a dream, but there she is asleep in her cot.

'If I hadn't been fitted with the bionic cervix, I would never have been able to to have a child.

To read more go to http://bit.ly/cr0MOD