The outcome of pregnancy complicated by threatened abortion.

E N a previous publication (Walker and Turnbull, 1953) we reported that in 14 pregnancies, in which there had been a history of threatened abortion, the haemoglobin and red cell levels in the baby’s cord blood at birth were higher than normal. From other evidence in the same paper we concluded that this was an indication that the supply of oxygen to the foetus was defective. If bleeding in the early months of pregnancy causes permanent impairment of placental function, we would expect the subsequent clinical course of such pregnancy to be abnormal. It is generally considered, however, that if bleeding ceases and the pregnancy continues, the end result is good (Mason, 1942; Carter, 1950; Stallworthy, 1951 ; Kaye, Rosner and Stein, 1953). Burge (1951), however, found that threatened abortion was associated with a slightly increased risk of foetal deformity, while Lilienfeld and Pasamanick (1955) reported an increased incidence of bleeding during pregnancy in mothers of children found to have cerebra 1 palsy, epilepsy, mental deficiency and behaviour disorders. The first part of this paper presents additional data on oxygen and haemoglobin levels and red cell counts in the cord blood of the foetus from pregnancies complicated by threatened abortion. The second part is a study of the outcome of pregnancy in cases of threatened abortion in Aberdeen Hospital cases. For the purpose of this investigation threatened abortion has been defined as uterine bleeding before the 28th week of pregnancy, usually painless, in which abortion did not follow within a week of the start of bleeding.