How can I be so confident? It has to do with knowing that when a Government sets its mind to reducing stillbirth that that is exactly what happens. How do I know this? Because it has worked in other high income countries like Scotland where there was a 20% reduction in stillbirth in Scotland when the Scottish Government funded a program to reduce stillbirth. How does funding help reduce stillbirth? Through education and awareness.
Imagine for a minute if no-one knew the signs of an impending heart attack, and everyone just thought that deaths from heart attack were more to do with mother nature and there was nothing anyone could do to stop them...deaths from heart attack would go up ...right? Imagine also if we thought that SIDS deaths were inevitable...as we did in the 80s,.. and no-one knew to put their young baby to sleep on their backs, SIDS would go up again too...right?
In much the same way some stillbirths can be prevented. Quite often a pregnant mum gets a warning that her baby is in trouble. In the 25 years since my baby Emma was stillborn I can't tell you how many times I've heard stories from parents of a stillborn baby that have made me incredibly cross because the mother noticed changes in her baby's activity or in her body , reported these changes to her care provider and was either falsely reassured or worse given incorrect advice. We can...and indeed we must....stop these deaths from happening. The Government spending money on public education and community awareness , alongside maternity care provider education will be effective in stopping these kinds of deaths.
It is wonderful that we now have bipartisan commitment to do just that