Outcome of the delivery following an induced or spontaneous abortion

We reviewed 5,003 records of consecutive deliveries in 1975 and 1976 at Boston Hospital for Women, abstracted demographic and obstetric data, and analyzed singleton deliveries at 27 weeks' gestation or greater. We compared women with exactly one prior proximate induced or spontaneous abortion with women of similar gravidity or parity with no prior pregnancy losses. Offspring of women with a proximate induced abortion had no higher frequency of short gestations, low Apgar scores, or congenital malformations than those born of women with no prior loss. Offspring of secundigravidas with a proximate abortion had birth weights similar to those of other primigravidas. Thus we have found that women with a single prior induced abortion have no increased risk of poor outcome of the next pregnancy after 27 weeks' gestation. In contrast, offspring of secundigravidas with a proximate spontaneous abortion had an increased frequency of short gestations, low birth weights, low Apgar scores, and congenital malformations, indicating that these women are a high-risk group for subsequent poor late pregnancy outcomes.