According to a new study, thin or skinny women who get pregnant are 72
percent more likely to miscarry in the first three months
of pregnancy than their normal weight counterparts. However, the risk can
be reduced up to 50 percent by eating the right food or taking
multivitamins like folic acid, say researchers.
The researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
carried out their study on 603 British women aged 18 to 55 who had
miscarried within three months of getting pregnant.
BBC reports that the new research also indicated that eating fruit and
vegetables, and also chocolate, helped reduce the risk of miscarriage.
Those classed as underweight had had a body mass index under 18.5.
Additionally, unmarried women or those living with a partner were also
at a greater risk than those who "planned" their pregnancies. Planning
parents were 40 per cent less likely to miscarry than those for whom
conception was an accident.
The research also discovered that woman who separated from their
partners after becoming pregnant increased her odds of a miscarriage by 60
per cent.
If a woman has had a previous abortion, it also raised the chances of a
subsequent miscarriage by more than 60 percent, while fertility problems
were associated with 41 per cent higher odds.
The research leader, Noreen Maconochie, a senior lecturer at the London
School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said, "The findings related to low
pre-pregnancy weight, previous termination, stress and change of partner
are noteworthy, and we suggest further work be initiated in other study
populations."
