How likely is a pregnancy loss when I have some spotting early in pregnancy?
About 1 in 3 women have some bleeding during the first trimester, and most will go on to have a healthy baby. When you bleed, your risk of miscarriage depends whether you have any cramping and how severe the bleeding is. Small brown spotting is not as much a concern as heavy red bleeding.
Here is the risk of miscarriage based on when you bleed:
- At <= 6 week: With bleeding 33% of pregnancies are lost, 16% are lost even if no bleeding is present
- At 7-9 week: With bleeding 10% of pregnancies are lost, 5% are lost without bleeding
- At 9-11 week: With bleeding 4% of pregnancies are lost, 1-2% are lost without bleeding