ABORTIONS AMONG PREVIOUS PREGNANCIES ACCORDING TO TYPE OF MALFORMATION

With the decline in mortality from other causes, congenital malformations represent an increasingly important cause of stillbirth and infant death. Malformations are also an important cause of spontaneous abortion and this paper examines the high fetal and infant loss associated with these conditions, using data collected on all births in 1964-66 to women resident in South Wales. The birth population and the ascertainment methods used in the survey have been described elsewhere (Richards and Lowe, 1971). Information on maternal age, parity, previous abortions, and parental occupation relating to all births in the survey years was abstracted from birth notification forms on to coding cards for punching and analysis. The Registrar General of England and Wales supplied photocopies of the registrations of all stillbirths and infant deaths occurring in South Wales among infants born in the three years of the survey; while it is possible that some deaths occurred outside the survey area, their number is likely to be so small as to have a negligible effect on the infant mortality rates reported here. TABLE