The overall rate of miscarriage among women with threatened miscarriage was 14.3%. Older women (31-40) years had a significantly higher rate of miscarriage (27.1%) compared to 18.2% in the 16-20 years age group and 7.1% in the 21-30 years age group. Parity, previous miscarriage, the amount and number of episodes of vaginal bleeding seem to have no influence in the rate of miscarriage. Bleeding in the first Trimester carries a higher rate of miscarriage (15%) than bleeding in the second trimester (5.6%) and bleeding before 6 weeks gestation in particular has the highest rate of miscarriage (29%).

We surveyed 385 women attending two maternity units for an anomaly scan at 20 weeks' gestation. Ninety-five per cent of the women thought that the purpose of the anomaly scan was to check for structural abnormalities in the fetus, indicating good knowledge. Most women thought the anomaly scan would pick up spinal, limb and kidney abnormalities. There was high expectation of what structural abnormalities the anomaly scan could pick up; 22% and 51% of the women thought the scan would pick up 61-70% and 71-100% of the structural abnormalities, respectively. Only 8% of the women thought, realistically, that the anomaly scan would pick up 50% of the abnormalities. The women's knowledge of soft markers was poor; 92% of them never heard of it. The main source of information about the anomaly scan was the hospital.

The objective of this study was to gauge women views of transvaginal sonography in an emergency setting and to study any correlation between their perception of the procedure and their prior knowledge and experience of it. We surveyed women presenting with various complications of the first trimester. Only women who had transvaginal sonography and who gave informed consent were included. Four hundred and twenty-five women were recruited. Transvaginal sonography was considered not embarrassing, acceptable, not painful and not stressful by 378 (88.9%), 417 (98.1%), 419 (98.6%) and 385 (90.6%) of the women respectively. There were no statistically significant differences in the women's perception of the procedure whether they had prior knowledge and previous experience of the procedure or not. The majority of the women perceived transvaginal sonography favourably. Their perception of the procedure was favourable whether they had prior knowledge and previous experience of it or not.

The objective of this case report is to highlight the lack of screening tests that is capable of predicting HELLP syndrome before its occurrence. The patient developed severe pre-eclamptic toxaemia at 34+ weeks gestation. The foetus was growth retarded. The patient received anti-hypertensive therapy and was delivered by an emergency caesarean section. The patient developed post partum HELLP syndrome that required supportive treatment and renal haemodialysis; nevertheless, the patient fully recovered.

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