VOA慢速英语2012 Health Report - Delay Pregnancy After a Miscarriage?

Health Report - Delay Pregnancy¹ After a Miscarriage²?

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

A miscarriage is the natural loss of a baby before the twentieth week of pregnancy. Experts say many pregnancies³ end before a woman even knows she was pregnant. Up to twenty percent of known pregnancies end in a miscarriage.

Miscarriages⁴ are generally caused by genetic⁵ problems with the baby that prevent it from developing. But whatever the cause, the loss of a pregnancy can be heartbreaking. And sometimes the advice that women receive after a miscarriage can also be heartbreaking.

Some women are told to wait before they try to get pregnant again. A two thousand five report from the World Health Organization advised waiting at least six months. Some doctors advise women to wait even longer.

But a Scottish study published in twenty-ten found no need to delay. Researchers from the University of Aberdeen examined the medical records of thirty thousand women. The women visited Scottish hospitals between nineteen eighty-one and two thousand. They had miscarriages in their first known pregnancies and became pregnant again.

The study found that eighty-five percent of women who waited less than six months to get pregnant had live births. That compared to seventy-three percent of women who waited more than two years.

Those who quickly became pregnant again were less likely to have a dangerous pregnancy form in their fallopian tubes. They were less likely to lose their fetus⁶ after twenty weeks, known as a stillbirth. They were also less likely to give birth by caesarean section. And they had fewer preterm births and fewer babies with low birth weight.

The study found that about forty percent of women became pregnant again within six months. Twenty-five percent got pregnant within six to twelve months.

The women who quickly became pregnant again after a miscarriage were more likely to be older. Older women might be less likely to delay because they know there are more risks with pregnancy the older they get.

The twenty-ten report appeared in the BMJ, the British Medical Journal. The researchers pointed⁷ out that their results were limited to Scottish records and could not be generalized to all women. For example, women in developing countries start having children at an earlier age than females in Western countries.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report. Find us online at www.voanews.cn. I’m Faith Lapidus.

1 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

2 miscarriage   

n.失败，未达到预期的结果；流产

参考例句：

• The miscarriage of our plans was a great blow.计划的失败给我们以巨大的打击。
• Women who smoke are more to have a miscarriage.女性吸烟者更容易流产。

3 pregnancies   

怀孕，妊娠( pregnancy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Since the wartime population needed replenishment, pregnancies were a good sign. 最后一桩倒不失为好现象，战时人口正该补充。
• She's had three pregnancies in four years. 她在四年中怀孕叁次。

4 miscarriages   

流产( miscarriage的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Miscarriages are usually caused by abnormal chromosome patterns in the fetus. 流产通常是因为胎儿的染色体异常造成的。
• Criminals go unpunishedareconvicted and are miscarriages of justice. 罪犯会逍遥法外，法律会伤及无辜，审判不公时有发生。

5 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

6 fetus   

n.胎，胎儿

参考例句：

• In the fetus,blood cells are formed in different sites at different ages.胎儿的血细胞在不同时期生成在不同的部位。
• No one knows why a fetus is not automatically rejected by the mother's immune system. 没有人知道为什么母亲的免疫系统不会自动排斥胎儿。

7 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。