What is miscarriage?

Early miscarriage

An early miscarriage is one that happens in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy (first trimester). Around 85% of miscarriages occur in the first trimester of pregnancy.

Late miscarriage

Late miscarriage refers to a pregnancy loss between 13-20 weeks gestation or in the second trimester of pregnancy.  Sometimes definitions differ slightly. Pregnancy loss occurring in the second trimester is much less common, occurring in 1 to 2 in 100 women.

Stillbirth

Stillbirth is the loss of a pregnancy after 20 weeks. In Australia, six babies are stillborn every day.

Recurrent miscarriage

In Australia, the definition of recurrent miscarriage can vary depending on which guidelines are consulted. It may be defined as either two or more, or three or more pregnancy losses before 20 weeks gestation. Some definitions also specify that the losses must be consecutive. Around 1-2% of women experience recurrent miscarriage.

In Australia, statistics on miscarriage are not collected so it’s difficult to know exactly how common it is. Sometimes a miscarriage happens when a woman isn’t aware she is pregnant or believes it to be a late period. We know that miscarriages occur in at least 15% of confirmed pregnancies. The actual miscarriage rate is likely to be much higher – we estimate it to be around 1 in 4 pregnancies.

Based on these rates and the number of births each year, we estimate around 285 miscarriages occur every day in Australia.