Preceding pregnancy loss as an index of risk of stillbirth or neonatal death in the present pregnancy.

Details of 9,311 singleton births born to multiparae in the first week of March 1958 were compared with 3,707 singleton cases of stillbirth and neonatal death delivered in the 3-month period March-May, with respect to the outcome of the preceding delivery. It was shown that the risk of death was raised some 66% if the preceding delivery had been an abortion and by a factor of nearly 3 if the preceding delivery had itself been a stillbirth or neonatal death (SBND). The increased risk was especially pronounced for macerated stillbirths. Analysis because of death revealed very significant increases in the incidence of congenital defects, asphyxia and 'no major lesion' when the preceding delivery had been either an abortion or an SBND. It was shown that, in general, a woman who had had a preceding SBND was over 3 times more likely to delivery by 35 weeks than on whose preceding delivery had ended in either an abortion or a survivor.