Recently I was trying to get hold of data on ‘miscarriages’ during pregnancies in India. You don’t realise how prevalent they are until you experience one and talk to people about it. Then, you start noticing a number of others who’ve had it and start hearing these vague numbers around it. I heard everything from 10% to 20% to ‘very often’ from doctors. To stretch it to the extreme, this news report from the Times of India, quotes a doctor stating it’s as high as 75%! Considering the vagueness of this data, the understanding of the exact causes of miscarriage is also varying. Again, I have heard things as vague as ‘it happens, many things can go wrong’ from doctors.
The most reliable source, rather the biggest sample size study, I found, of information on this in India, is the National Family Health Survey (NFHS). Even, this survey is not done regularly. Only 3 have been done so far since the first survey in 1992-93. The 4th one is underway right now.
The table below summarises the numbers for women (varies by survey – says ever married women for the ’92 and ’98 survey, just women for the ’05 survey) who have ever had a miscarriage, abortion or non-live birth.
| NFHS | 1992-93 | 1998-1999 | 2005-06 | |
| Sample Size: # of women interviewed (aged 15-49 years) | 89,777 | 90,303 | 1,24,385 | |
| # of abortions per 100 pregnancies | Induced | 1.3 | 1.7 | |
| Spontaneous | 4.5 | 4.4 | ||
| # of still births per 100 pregnancies | 2.3 | 2.0 | ||
| %age of pregnancies that ended in non live births | 8.1% | 8.1% | 10.4% | |
Data sourced from NFHS1992-93, 1998-99 (can’t be accessed directly, so took this report from DHS website and this Elsevier report), 2005-06.
It is almost certain that the NFHS data on the total number of pregnancies ending in abortion, spontaneous or induced, is likely to be an underestimate. This is partly due to retrospective nature of the survey, sensitivity of the issue and due to the fact that a number of people don’t realise they are pregnant (no easy access to pregnancy testing) and/or that they had a spontaneous miscarriage.
Additionally, the NFHS does not collect information on a number of relevant issues to understand issues on this matter better. For example, information on age at abortion, duration of pregnancy at the time of abortion, reason for abortion etc., are not captured.
Considering the importance of understanding the underlying causes behind all these three issues – abortions both spontaneous and induced, and still births – I think it’s high time the government institutes another mechanism of capturing data on miscarriages.
