No need to delay trying to conceive after a miscarriage

Women needn’t delay trying to conceive after experiencing a miscarriage.

According to the current advice by the World Health Organisation, women should wait at least six months after a miscarriage before trying to get pregnant again.

This advice needs reviewing, says Sohinee Bhattacharya from University of Aberdeen and lead author in new research just published in the British Medical Journal.

Her findings show that women in developing countries who conceive within six months of an initial miscarriage stand a better chance of having a healthy pregnancy with lower complication rates.

The new research analysed the data of more than 30,000 women in Scotland between 1981 and 2000 who had miscarried their first pregnancy but had gone on to be successful the second time.

The results showed that women conceiving within six months were less likely to miscarry, suffer an ectopic pregnancy or even have a caesarean section.