What is the risk/rate of miscarriage?
Each year in Australia, approximately one in four pregnancies is affected by miscarriage. Most of the spontaneous miscarriages occur in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Some women are at higher risk but this needs to be discussed with your doctor. Is high blood pressure is a concern? Very much. Pre-eclampsia is the name given to high blood pressure during pregnancy that may cause health concerns for the woman and her baby. For the woman, pre-eclampsia may affect the normal functioning of her kidneys, liver, brain and blood clotting system. For the baby, it may affect the functioning of the placenta. Pre-eclampsia usually only occurs after about 20 weeks of the pregnancy. The precise cause of pre-eclampsia is still not clear, but it is thought that it may be due to an imperfect implantation of the placenta early on in the pregnancy. Pre-eclampsia tends to be more common in women having their first baby and women having another baby with a new partner. It is also more common for teenage
