FETAL WASTAGE IN ELEVEN PUNJAB VILLAGES

The present report relates to an ambitious attempt to secure adequate data about fetal wastage in a population of rural India. Information comes from the India-Harvard-Ludhiana Population Study (Khanna Study). Detailed pregnancy and menstrual histories were collected during monthly home visits, over a period varying from 3 to 5 years, from a village population of roughly 12,000 in the Punjab, India. An overall rate of 100 abortions and 30 stillbirths per 1000 pregnancies was obtained, based on a total of 1765 pregnancies. The abortion rate, while more than five times higher than that reported by the respondents retrospectively, is still believed to be an underestimate of the true incidence of spontaneous abortion among the Khanna Study villagers. The chief limiting factor appears to have been the unwillingness and incapacity of the respondents to report early symptoms of pregnancy. The observed increase in rate of fetal losses with advancing age of mother was of the same order of magnitude as found in a recent United States study.