The Incompetent Cervix in Repetitive Abortion and Premature Labor

IN obstetric practice, it is acknowledged that a significant number of patients, without apparent cause, repeatedly terminate their pregnancies between the early part of the middle trimester and the period of medical viability (approximately sixteen to thirty-two weeks). The conceptus is usually normal, in contrast to that in patients whose pregnancy terminates before the tenth to the twelfth week, when the abortus is generally abnormal.It has been suggested that this inability to retain an otherwise normal pregnancy to a stage of viability may be due to an anatomic defect in the internal os of the cervix.1 The majority of . . .