Reproductive counseling in patients who have had a spontaneous abortion.

A detailed morphologic study was made of spontaneously aborted embryos and fetuses from 472 patients. These patients were followed through 638 subsequent pregnancies. The patients were divided into four groups, depending on their previous obstetric history. The outcome of the subsequent pregnancies was correlated with the previous obstetric history of the patient and the developmental status of the aborted specimen. Patients who had never had a live child in the previous obstetric history were identified as a high-risk group. Patients who had had live births and pregnancy loss previously were found to be at significant risk of a subsequent premature infant following the late abortion of a fetus.