Did you know that close to one in four American women experience pregnancy loss? In the United States, a miscarriage is usually defined as loss of a baby before the 20th week of pregnancy, and a stillbirth is loss of a baby at 20 weeks of pregnancy and later. An ectopic pregnancy occurs when a fertilized egg grows outside of the uterus and implants somewhere else (usually in a fallopian tube), which can be life-threatening for the mother. A molar pregnancy is when tissue in the uterus becomes an abnormal mass or tumor instead of a placenta. If there is formation of a fetus, the fetus is not able to survive.

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• For women who know they’re pregnant, about 10 to 15 in 100 pregnancies (10 to 15 percent) end in miscarriage. Most miscarriages happen in the first trimester before the 12th week of pregnancy. Miscarriage in the second trimester (between 13 and 19 weeks) happens in 1 to 5 in 100 pregnancies (1 to 5 percent).

• About 1 pregnancy in 100 at 20 weeks of pregnancy and later is affected by stillbirth, and each year about 24,000 babies are stillborn in the United States.

• In the United States, the estimated prevalence of ectopic pregnancy is 1 to 2 percent. 

• A molar pregnancy is rare and occurs in 1 out of every 1,000 pregnancies.

 

There is limited emotional support for women who experience pregnancy loss. Pregnancy losses, though common, are often invisible to society. People often fail to recognize the depth of the loss. Following the loss of a pregnancy, women often experience anguish and desperation, as well as feelings of shame and inadequacy. Many women experience guilt and blame themselves for the loss thinking they must have done something wrong or that they could have prevented it. There are so many “what ifs” that women who have suffered pregnancy loss think about. One in 10 women exhibit signs of a diagnosable disorder such as anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder following a reproductive loss. 

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