Linda Sherwood of Lake City, Mich., didn't hear the term "blighted ovum" until she was 29 years old and well into her third failed pregnancy. "When I first heard the term, I had no idea what it meant, but my doctor explained it to me very well," she says. "Once I understood, I was crying."

A blighted ovum is the cause of about 50 percent of first trimester miscarriages, says Dr. Denise Martinez, an obstetrician who specializes in high-risk pregnancies. It means an egg is fertilized and attaches itself to the uterine wall, but the embryo doesn't develop. Cells develop to form the pregnancy sac, but not the embryo itself.

Often, there is no bleeding or other signs of a failed pregnancy. A woman may not realize there is a problem with the pregnancy, which by then is thought to be several weeks along, until a doctor fails to detect a heartbeat or an ultrasound reveals an empty gestational sac.

Although Sherwood had two pregnancies that previously ended in miscarriage, her third pregnancy seemed hopeful. It had already lasted longer than her first two pregnancies. In her 12th week, Sherwood agreed to a series of ultrasounds, each showing deterioration in the placenta's shape and form. The fertilized egg, which had initially attached itself to the placenta, was no longer there.

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