A miscarriage is a common event. It is an experience, however, that affects each woman and her partner differently. This leaflet is intended to help answer some of the questions women ask after they miscarry. If you need additional information, or more specific information, please ask the doctor or nurse looking after you.
Miscarriage is far commoner than realised.
One in four women miscarry at some stage in their lives and a estimated 13,000 miscarry in Ireland each year. In individual patients the cause of a miscarriage is not usually found. Research shows that about half of all miscarriages are due to an error in the genetic make-up of the pregnancy. Nature's response to this problem is spontaneous miscarriage. Almost always, a miscarriage is not due to anything the patient or her partner did or did not do.