Chapter 34 RECURRENT MISCARRIAGE
Miscarriage, or spontaneous abortion, is the spontaneous loss of a fetus at less than 20 weeks’ gestation in the absence of elective medical or surgical measures to terminate the pregnancy. Recurrent miscarriage is defined as three or more consecutive pregnancy losses, although many clinicians define recurrent miscarriage as two or more losses. According to the latter definition, recurrent miscarriage affects from 1% to 5% of all couples trying to conceive. Fetal demise after the sixth month of gestation is rare, occurring in fewer than 4 per 1000 pregnancies.