More needs to be done to integrate stillbirth prevention within global and national agendas for high quality health care for women, adolescents, and babies.
Through the Global Strategy for Women's, Children's and Adolescents Health 2016-2030 and implementing the recommendations of the Every Newborn Action Plan (2014), WHO is working to end preventable stillbirths, as part of efforts to improve maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health.
Most stillbirths do not receive a birth certificate and are not registered. Improving systems for reporting births and neonatal deaths is a matter of human rights and a prerequisite for reducing stillbirths. In addition, there is a need to strengthen routine health information systems to accurately capture and report stillbirths for monitoring and improving the quality of care.
WHO provides tools to help countries improve their data on both stillbirths and neonatal deaths. WHO also has guidance to help countries review and investigate individual deaths so they can recommend and implement solutions to prevent similar ones in the future and a standard classification system for perinatal deaths (ICD-PM).
WHO and UNICEF are supporting a call for collective action to end preventable stillbirths by:
Increasing awareness and reducing stigma
Supporting bereaved women and families
Strengthening health systems to provide high-quality care
Nationalizing and localizing stillbirth targets
Improving measurement of stillbirths to enhance evidence and knowledge
Stillbirth
A baby who dies after 28 weeks of pregnancy, but before or during birth, is classified as a stillbirth.
There are nearly 2 million stillbirths every year, one each 16 seconds. . Over 40 per cent of all stillbirths occur during labour – a loss that could be avoided with improved quality and respectful care during childbirth including routine monitoring and timely access to emergency obstetric care when required.
Experiencing a stillbirth during pregnancy or childbirth is a tragedy insufficiently addressed in global agendas, policies and funded programmes. There are psychological costs to women, especially women, and their families, such as maternal depression, financial consequences and economic percussions, as well as stigma and taboo.
In 2014, the World Health Assembly endorsed the Every Newborn Action Plan (ENAP) which includes a global target of 12 or fewer stillbirths per 1000 total births in every country by 2030. By 2019, 128 mainly high-income and upper middle-income countries had met this target, but many countries have not. Around 84 per cent of all stillbirths occur in low- and lower middle-income countries, however high rates of stillbirths can also be observed in high-income countries within vulnerable groups and ethnic minorities.
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