Worldwide in 2015, for every 1000 total births, 18.4 babies were stillborn, mostly in low- and middle-income countries. Progress in reducing this rate has been slow and at present speed, 160 years will pass before a pregnant woman in Africa has the same chance of her baby being born alive as a woman in a high-income country today. Even in high-income countries rates vary from 1.3 to 8 per 1000 births, a variation that shows further improvements are possible.
What is especially tragic about stillbirths is that they are largely preventable. We know key interventions such as syphilis treatment in pregnancy, fetal heart rate monitoring and labour surveillance have the potential to save around 1.5 million lives. The challenge is to deliver these within an integrated care package that extends from pre-pregnancy through delivery says Ian Askew, Director, Reproductive Health and Research.
The perception that many stillbirths are unavoidable due to congenital abnormalities is commonplace but untrue with only 7.4% of stillbirths after 28 weeks being reported as such. Half of stillbirths occur during labour, mostly to infants delivered at term and who would have been expected to survive, wherein lies the greatest tragedy.
Cost to society
In addition to the grief, and often the stigma, attached to a stillbirth, there are other costs to parent(s), families and society. These costs are both direct – a stillbirth costs 10-70% more than a live birth with funeral costs generally being passed on to parent(s) and lost income from time taken off work; and indirect due to greatly reduced work productivity.
What needs to be done – integrated quality care.
The prevention and responsive care of stillbirths cannot be a stand-alone issue but needs to be part of an integrated approach that runs across the continuum of planning and preconception care; quality care during pregnancy skilled support during the birth and respectful and supportive care in the event of a death.
In addition, some evidence-based interventions have their greatest effect on stillbirths such as syphilis treatment in pregnancy which could prevent more than 200 000 stillbirths or fetal heart rate monitoring and labour surveillance, crucial for preventing 1.3 million intrapartum stillbirths and reducing neonatal deaths.
The Lancet Series
The Ending Preventable Stillbirths series was developed by over 200 experts including staff from WHO and HRP and published by The Lancet. It provides compelling evidence for action from parents, health care professionals and policy-makers. The series is comprised of the following papers:
Executive summary: Ending preventable stillbirths
Stillbirths: progress and unfinished business
Stillbirths: rates, risk factors, and acceleration towards 2030
Stillbirths: economic and psychosocial consequences
Stillbirths: recall to action in high-income countries
Stillbirths: ending preventable deaths by 2030