| Pregnancy loss, the demise of a pregnancy at any time between implantation and delivery, is a common event in women's lives, affecting approximately one in three pregnancies. Pregnancy loss often causes profound psychological distress to women, their partners, and their families. However, despite its frequency and troubling nature, relatively little is known about the natural history of pregnancy loss, especially the multitude of signs and symptoms that precede a loss and distinguish it from an ongoing healthy pregnancy. One of the challenges in describing the natural history of pregnancy loss is that most losses occur very early, before entry to clinical care, necessitating the use of preconception cohort studies. Few such studies have ever been conducted worldwide. This dissertation aimed to describe the natural history of early pregnancy loss at <20 weeks gestation for the first time using a unique preconception cohort with daily prospective follow-up from the start of the pregnancy attempt through seven weeks post-conception. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.). |
