If a woman bleeds early in her pregnancy, she often visits her doctor. The physician takes an ultrasound to measure the size of the embryo and gestational sac.

Anywhere from a week to 10 days later, the doctor performs another ultrasound, and then looks for fetus growth over the intervening time period. If the doctor's measurements for the embryo are not accurate both initially and on the second reading, it could look like the fetus hasn't grown, and the doctor could mistakenly take surgical or other medical actions that terminate the pregnancy.

This result --miscarriage misdiagnosis that ends a healthy pregnancy -- has drawn the strong scrutiny and pointed recommendations of study researchers from a hospital in London.

They note that the commonly used ultrasound testing method does not leave enough room for error, with up to a 20 percent variation existing for one fetus at any point in time,

This leads in too many cases to a false miscarriage diagnosis, according to the co-author of the study, Anne Pexsters. Co-researcher Tom Bourne says that, "By identifying this problem we hope that guidelines will be reviewed so that inadvertent termination of wanted pregnancies cannot happen."

He adds: "We also hope backing will be given to even larger studies to test new guidelines prospectively."

A miscarriage is without doubt a traumatic experience If you feel that you may have had a miscarriage misdiagnosis and that your doctor did not do everything reasonably necessary to prevent the ending of your pregnancy -- including conducting a third ultrasound when doing so would have been reasonably indicated-- contact an experienced medical malpractice firm in Ohio. You may have had a perfectly healthy pregnancy, even if the fetus showed no growth between the first two ultrasounds.

Source: The Atlantic, "A false positive for miscarriages: Terminating healthy pregnancies" Oct. 21, 2011