ABSTRACT
An early miscarriage may be a normal, natural way to end an unhealthy pregnancy, or it may not. The World Health Organization (WHO) has defined miscarriage as the loss of an embryo or fetus weighing 500 grams or less, which corresponds to 20 to 22 weeks’ gestation, whereas the legal definition in the United Kingdom (UK) is the loss of a baby with a gestational age of 24 weeks or less, and in North America it is 20 weeks. Spontaneous miscarriage is the most common complication of early pregnancy. Loss of a baby before week 13 of gestation is called an early miscarriage, and the majority of pregnancy losses occur during this period, in fact in the first 8 weeks of pregnancy. Vaginal bleeding with or without pain in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy is relatively common, with the estimated incidence ranging from 20% to 50% of clinically recognised pregnancies.
