--- title: 11 Things You Didn't Know About Miscarriage description: Earlier this week, reality TV stars Giuliana and Bill Rancic revealed that the surrogate who was nine weeks pregnant with their second child had a... canonical: https://time.com/2832914/things-didnt-know-miscarriage/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-06T19:00:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T08:15:17.592Z article:section: Health og:title: 11 Things You Didn't Know About Miscarriage og:description: Earlier this week, reality TV stars Giuliana and Bill Rancic revealed that the surrogate who was nine weeks pregnant with their second child had a... og:url: https://time.com/2832914/things-didnt-know-miscarriage/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 11 Things You Didn't Know About Miscarriage twitter:description: Earlier this week, reality TV stars Giuliana and Bill Rancic revealed that the surrogate who was nine weeks pregnant with their second child had a... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # 11 Things You Didn’t Know About Miscarriage > Sponsored content. 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Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [Health.com](https://time.com/author/health-com/) ## Health.com Contributor Jun 6, 2014 7:00 PM UTC by [Health.com](https://time.com/author/health-com/) ## Health.com Contributor Jun 6, 2014 7:00 PM UTC Earlier this week, reality TV stars Giuliana and Bill Rancic revealed that the surrogate who was nine weeks pregnant with their second child had a miscarriage. Giuliana told [PEOPLE](http://www.people.com/article/giuliana-bill-rancic-surrogate-miscarriage-fertility-struggle-one-embryo-left-breast-cancer) that she had had a miscarriage herself in 2010 before turning to a surrogate, Delphine. Now, that sense of loss was amplified. “It was just heartbreaking,” Giuliana said, “I just started sobbing uncontrollably. But I had to get myself together for her. She’s really strong and amazing.” Still, she and Bill are looking forward to the day when their 21-month-old son can have a sibling. “Because miscarriage so common, you need to be aware that it could happen to you,” says Teresa Berg, M.D., director of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. “And just because you’ve had one doesn’t mean you’re not going to have another.” Here’s what you need to know to minimize your risk and, if needed, move forward. **Miscarriage happens more often than you think** The figure often cited is that about 15% of pregnancies end in miscarriage, which is also called “early pregnancy loss” and “spontaneous abortion.” But with the extra-sensitive, early-response pregnancy tests available these days, that number may be as high as 30% of all pregnancies, Dr. Berg says. **Health.com:** [**15 Signs You May Have an Iron Deficiency**](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20798655,00.html?xid=Time-miscarriage-060514) **Miscarriage happens early in pregnancy** The definition of miscarriage is a pregnancy lost before 20 weeks, but almost all miscarriages occur before the 12-week mark, says Dr. Berg. (That’s why expecting parents are often told to wait until the second trimester to start spreading the news.) A pregnancy lost after 20 weeks is usually referred to as stillbirth. **You may not know you’ve miscarried** “You can miscarry within the first 10 days of conception and not even recognize that you’ve had a pregnancy loss,” says Dr. Berg. “You may think it’s just a period.” Bleeding is a common symptom of miscarriage, so is severe cramping. If you have either symptom and you know you’re pregnant, see a doctor or go to the emergency room to avoid two possible complications of miscarriage: hemorrhage and infection. **Health.com:** [**10 Ways to Boost Your Odds of Getting Pregnant**](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20783012,00.html?xid=Time-miscarriage-060514) **It’s not the mother’s fault** Most miscarriages occur because of genetic abnormalities in the embryo, Dr. Berg says. There’s really no way to predict or prevent them. They just happen. **Older women are more likely to miscarry** Miscarriages become even more common as women get older. That’s because as eggs age, the chances of genetic abnormalities increase. **Health.com:** [**How to Help Someone Who’s Depressed**](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20452135,00.html?xid=Time-miscarriage-060514) **Fertility treatments may raise your risk** But if they do, it’s probably a small increase and it may be hard to determine if it’s due to the treatments or to other factors—many women undergoing fertility treatment are older, or have other conditions that affect fertility. If you’re 40 and trying to get pregnant, you’ll have a better chance of carrying a baby to term if you use a donor egg from a younger woman, says Dr. Berg. **Your weight matters** Being too thin or overweight can both increase the risk of a miscarriage, says Dr. Berg. Diabetes, a common complication of obesity, can also increase the risk, but only if the condition is poorly controlled. “Women who are checking their blood sugar and have \[blood sugar\] that’s in a normal range have a risk no different than someone who doesn’t have diabetes,” she says. **Health.com:** [**11 Reasons Why You’re Not Losing Belly Fat**](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20807507,00.html?xid=Time-miscarriage-060514) **Smoking is a known risk factor** Women who smoke have a higher chance of miscarriage so add this to the long list of reasons not to smoke—whether you’re pregnant or not. **Sex doesn’t cause it** You’ve likely heard the old wives’ tale that intercourse can increase the risk of losing a baby. Well, it doesn’t. Neither does exercise nor continuing to work, Dr. Berg says. **One miscarriage doesn’t mean you’ll have more** Many, many women who’ve had a miscarriage go on to have one or more children. In fact, doctors usually don’t look for an underlying reason for miscarriage until you’ve had two or more, she says. (So, yes, you can suffer more than one.) **It’s normal to grieve after a miscarriage** Feelings of loss are common after a miscarriage, even one that happens very early on. “Women can attach to a pregnancy even if they haven’t seen anything on an ultrasound or felt the baby move,” Dr. Berg says. “There is a grieving process.” Some women have significant depression and depression-like symptoms and fathers can grieve, too. Support groups from organizations like the March of Dimes and Resolve can help, and so can the support of close family and friends. [This article originally appeared on Health.com.](http://news.health.com/2014/06/04/11-things-you-didnt-know-about-miscarriage/?xid=Time-miscarriage-060514) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2832914/things-didnt-know-miscarriage/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2832914/things-didnt-know-miscarriage/"},"headline":"11 Things You Didn’t Know About Miscarriage","datePublished":"2014-06-06T19:00:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:15:17.592Z","description":"Earlier this week, reality TV stars Giuliana and Bill Rancic revealed that the surrogate who was nine weeks pregnant with their second child had a...","url":"https://time.com/2832914/things-didnt-know-miscarriage/","keywords":["Pregnancy","Grief","Sex","Miscarriage"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Health.com","jobTitle":"Contributor","url":"https://time.com/author/health-com/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2832914/things-didnt-know-miscarriage/","name":"11 Things You Didn’t Know About Miscarriage"}}]}] ```