Myth 3:

If you have had an elective abortion, you will have a greater risk of miscarriage.

Fact: There are no statistics to indicate that surgical abortions have any link to increased miscarriage risk -- at least for the first abortion. In fact, women who have had less than four to five elective first-trimester abortion are not assumed to be at a higher risk of miscarrying their subsequent pregnancies.

But because an elective abortion involves mechanically dilating the cervix and removing the pregnancy tissue, performing this more than four to five times may be linked to an increased rate of miscarriage due to the weakening of the cervix. Second-trimester abortions, on the other hand, can pose a problem for future pregnancies as the cervix must be dilated much more and the cervix is more likely to be weakened.

Myth 4:

First pregnancies are the most prone to miscarriages.

Fact: On the contrary, women are more likely to miscarry in subsequent pregnancies, especially if they are over age 35 when pregnant with their second or third child. The miscarriage rates are higher because there is an increased incidence of chromosomal abnormalities in the fertilized egg among this older age group.