Recent studies instead put miscarriage prevalence at 15-20%, and scientists agree that the most common cause of miscarriage is aneuploidy, the presence of an abnormal number of chromosomes. The research team behind the Obstetrics and Gynecology article speculates that the high numbers who felt guilty and ashamed perhaps stem from the culture of silence surrounding miscarriage. After all, if you believe miscarriage to be rare, and have never heard anyone else admit to the experience, it might be easier to believe it is your fault when you have one
.. As contraception and abortion became legal, safe, effective, and affordable for more American women in the latter half of the twentieth century, and scientists untangled the physiology of pregnancy to better understand how it happens and how to avoid it, many women came to feel that they had absolute control over when they got pregnant. That sense of control only increased with advances in artificial insemination, leading many Americans to believe that modern medicine can fix any reproductive problem. But with great control always comes great responsibility. Because they do have such unprecedented control over their fertility, how many women now feel that, when something goes wrong, it must be their fault?