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UK Wedding News

19/02/2014

Lifestyle Changes Could Prevent Miscarriage

A new study has said that miscarriages could be prevented if a mother-to-be makes a series of lifestyle changes.

The research found that more than a quarter of miscarriages could be prevented.

The study, which has been carried out by a team at the University of Copenhagen and published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, looked at data from 91,427 pregnancies in the Danish National Birth Cohort between 1996 and 2002.

Of the 91,427 pregnancies examined in this study, 3,177 resulted in miscarriage and the team tried to identify the potential risk factors for miscarriage, as well as estimate the preventable proportion of miscarriages which could be attributed to these factors.

A total of nine modifiable risk factors were examined, including amount of exercise, alcohol consumption, smoking, work schedule (such as night shifts), lifting a weight heavier than 20kg each day, and maternal age at conception.

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Of those factors, the paper concluded that maternal age at conception and alcohol consumption during pregnancy were the most important risk factors, with researchers estimating that just over 11% of miscarriages may be prevented if maternal age at conception is between 25 and 29 years, and 9% of miscarriages could be prevented if no alcohol was consumed during pregnancy.

Sandra Feodor Nilsson, PhD student from the Department of Public Health at the University of Copenhagen and co-author of the study explained: "Miscarriage is the most common adverse pregnancy outcome affecting at least one in seven pregnancies and is considered irreversible. Therefore, prevention may be the only way of reducing the number of miscarriages that occur.

"Our results indicate that the risk of miscarriage is increased by multiple potentially modifiable risk factors and a considerable proportion of miscarriages may be preventable. We know that the modifiable aspects of the risk factors may be questioned as they often depend on other factors that are not necessarily easy to change.

"However, we think that information about increased chances of having a successful pregnancy at a relatively young age is an important perspective. If our findings are supported by future prospective cohort studies they may support a prevention strategy towards miscarriage."

Caroline Overton, spokesperson at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, added:" This is a very interesting study in terms of the very large population size."

She said it also confirmed advice currently given by health experts to promote a healthy pregnancy, but questioned how applicable the study could be to British women.

In the UK, more than one in seven pregnancies ends in miscarriage.

(JP/MH)

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"A new study has said that miscarriages could be prevented if a mother-to-be makes a series of lifestyle changes."