The effects of miscarriage and other ‘unsuccessful’ pregnancies on feelings early in a subsequent pregnancy

Abstract

Data from pregnant women recruited to a prospective study of the psychological and social effects of screening for fetal abnormality were analysed according to previous reproductive experiences. In this paper we report on the effects of these previous experiences on women's feelings early in this pregnancy. Women who had experienced a previous unsuccessful pregnancy were more anxious, both generally and specifically, about the possibility of something being wrong with the baby and about the possibility of miscarriage. Women with unsuccessful pregnancies and no living children had the highest trait anxiety, when measured early in pregnancy. We show a number of ways in which women who have experienced a previous pregnancy failure differ from women who have not; these differences vary with a number of factors, notably the type of unsuccessful pregnancy, whether or not the woman has living children, the timing of the unsuccessful events, and whether a woman has also had a non-medical termination of pregnancy. Wc also report on a number of differences between women who have and have not been pregnant before.