Miscarriage/Pregnancy Loss |
Where to Start for
Information on Recurrent Pregnancy Loss/Miscarriage:
It is amazing to me how little good information is available on
recurrent miscarriages. Partly this is because
there is no medical specialty in miscarriage prevention and
treatment. As a result there is little research into miscarriages.
Ive included the best resources I could find, even though
there arent many. I am not a doctor, but from the research
Ive done, if you have had repeated miscarriages, I would
recommend that you first have a chromosomal analysis done on the
aborted/terminated fetus. If the test results show that the fetus
was chromosomally normal, then I would suggest trying to find a
clinic or doctor that specializes in miscarriages. (See below) You
may need to send your test results to a clinic in another state
since miscarriage specialist are few and far between. If the test
results show a chromosonal abnormality, I would suggest seeing an
reproductive endocrinologist that treats a lot of woman with
repeated miscarriages. She may recommend that you simply keep
trying or she may talk with you about using preimplantation genetic
diagnosis (PGD) with IVF. (See resources I have for PGD
under Infertility Resources)
In the meantime, the following statistic should give you some
peace: 70% of woman that have had up to four miscarriages
will successfully carry a baby to term.
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Books,
Articles, and Other Information on Recurrent Miscarriage
:
- The best educational
book I've seen on miscarriages is: Coming to Term: Uncovering
the Truth about Miscarriage by Jon Cohen. I loved this book.
Cohen succeeded to make a dry, sad topic interesting. It is
exceedingly well written and informative. Cohen, a biomedical
journalist whose wife suffered four miscarriages, is thorough and
researched based. I strongly recommend reading this book if you
have suffered more than two miscarriages.
- Miscarriage clinics: I
was amazed to learn how few doctors specialize in pregnancy loss.
Finding a doctor may be a problem, but there are a few that
specialize in miscarriage. If you are not located near one of these
clinics, consider contacting them for a recommendation or to find
out if you can send your medical information to them for a
telephone consult.
- Recurrent Pregnancy Loss Program at the University
of Chicago Medical Center- headed by Dr. Mary Stephenson
- Dr. Danny Schust used to
run a miscarriage clinic at Brigham and Women's Hospital. He moved
to the School of Medicine at the University of Missouri-Columbia
where he is the Director of the Assisted Reproduction
Laboratories.
- Save the Baby
Unit at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, England headed by Dr.
Lesley Regan- I know this is a long way to go, but it is one of the
best and perhaps you can get a consult.
- Patient fact sheet on recurrent pregnancy loss
put out by the American Society of Reproductive Medicine
- How to deal with the loss of a miscarriage, by Devorah Kur
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