A review on genetic counseling for miscarriages (spontaneous and recurrent) and stillbirths

Recurrent miscarriages, intra-uterine fetal death, and still-birth are very common problems in obstetrics and clinical genetics. Frequently, families refer to genetic counseling centers because of these problems. Affected families are eager to know the cause of the problem, how to cope with, and how to prevent the recurrence. It should be mentioned that the level of knowledge and experience of the most of the health care professionals is low in this regard, and should be up-dated. In the past decades a significant rate of information appeared in related medical journals and books, as research papers. Most of the authorities recommend a comprehensive evaluation of these families and the products of the pregnancies. Identification of the genetic and non-genetic causes of the phenomenon and their effects on choosing an appropriate reproduction modality, are very important point that researchers are insistently following. Whenever a catastrophic event, like this, was occurred, it would be the duty of obstetricians, neonatologists, geneticists, and other specialists to counterpart very efficiently on the process of evaluation, diagnosis, management, and also providing an informative genetic counseling for these families.