It seems that every half of our married friends have gone through miscarriages. The worst was a friend who lost her baby in the ninth month because the cord had wrapped around his neck.

Diane and I think that there are two possible reasons for what seems like a marked rise in the miscarriage rate. 1) People are more comfortable talking about such events in this more "enlightened" time. 2) Baby boomers are having their babies at a later age. Perhaps this age factor has something to do with miscarriage.

Diane and I went through two miscarriages of our own before finally bearing fruit so to speak. We had been trying to have a baby for about two and half years. During this time the miscarriages occurred, we saw fertility specialists, arranged our lives around basal thermometers and urine tests, and even drank the liquid from the maquey plant outside of Mexico City (Aztec legend claims the maquey plant increases the fertility of all who drink its liquid).

Finally, last May we decided to give it all a break. We were planning a trip to Japan in early Spring of 1991 and we thought that if we did get pregnant, we would be giving birth during the time we were supposed to be Japan. So we stopped the active work in trying to get pregnant. Of course, the next month we were pregnant.