Understanding Miscarriage

It was November when Mara Barth's home pregnancy test revealed the happy news: She and her husband, Jeff, were going to have a baby. But just six weeks into her pregnancy, Mara, then 33, began having cramps followed by some light bleeding. After a series of tests, the doctor confirmed the Wilmette, Illinois, couple's worst fears: Mara was having a miscarriage. "We called it our false start," says the athlete and former competitive swimmer. In any case, "It was devastating," she says.

It is also devastatingly common. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, about 15 to 20 percent of pregnancies end in miscarriage, a pregnancy loss that occurs before 20 weeks.

When the unexpected happens, many wonder if it was something they did, ate, or drank that caused the miscarriage, compounding their pain in the process. It's important for women to know that not only is miscarriage common, but they shouldn't blame themselves for the loss. "It's not your fault," says Jonathan Scher, MD, a New York City ob-gyn and coauthor of Preventing Miscarriage: The Good News (HarperCollins). Most miscarriages are inevitable, nature's way of handling an unhealthy or abnormal embryo or fetus. What's more, notes Dr. Scher, more than 90 percent of women who suffer a miscarriage go on to have a perfectly healthy, full-term pregnancy the next time around. (Mara did.)