Time for some statistics

image: nuttakit / Freedigitalphotos.net

It is time for some statistics.

Before go on I should probably point out that I have no idea if any of the statistics I am going to quote are correct. I have added links to the sites that use them but often the sites themselves do not say how they came up with the statistics so who knows if they are correct.

Getting pregnant

To start with here are the statistics nobody tells you when you are young and being warned to always use protection otherwise risk an unplanned pregnancy. Nice and scary when you are impatient and trying to conceive though!

90% of couples in which the woman is under 35 will conceive naturally after one year of actively trying according to the NHS. 30% conceive in the first month and 60% within six months according to Babycentre.

Miscarriage

When you are lucky enough to get that positive pregnancy test these are the next set of statistics to worry about. These stats are curtesy of Babycentre.

What is the chance of miscarriage in first 12 weeks? After a positive pregnancy test, there's about a 20% chance of having an early miscarriage. Late miscarriage (between 12 and 24 weeks in the UK) is less common. It happens in about 1% of pregnancies.

Stillbirth

Now for the statistics that Orson fits into...

In the UK 17 babies are stillborn or die shortly after birth every day (ref: SANDS ) In the UK stillbirth is defined as death of a baby before birth at 24 weeks gestation or above. In England and Wales 5 out of every 1000 babies are stillborn (just over 3000 a year) (ref: NHS )

pPROM

And what about the chance of pPROM? Only around 2% of women experience PPROM.
(ref: RCOG ) Since pPROM is where a women's water breaks before the onset of labour before 37 weeks I would imagine many of the cases will have a positive outcome because the water will break so close to term. I have not seen any statistics on early pPROM but I suspect it is rare. And the chance of having pPROM before 24 weeks and continuing the pregnancy for another 10...? I think it is very rare, after all there must have been a reason the doctors told tell women whose waters break so early they will miscarry within 3 days.

What does it mean?

And what do all these chances mean (apart from that I have been using the Internet too much!)? Well nothing really. Any of you reading this blog of course knows that statistics really don't mean very much. We have all been unlucky with statistics. We can't predict what will happen, we just have to hope and be positive. Still on a bad day it is hard not to be disheartened by these statistics.