STILLBIRTH

Stillbirth

In Australia, six babies are stillborn every day. This is a disturbing statistic – especially since little is currently known about effective ways to modify risk for Stillbirth. Additionally stillbirth rates in most high income countries across the globe have shown little improvement over the last two decades. Australia’s late-term stillbirth rate using the international benchmark of 28 weeks, ranks us 15th out of 193 countries. The top-ranked country is Finland with a rate of 2 per thousand. If Australia could achieve a stillbirth rate similar to Finland’s then more than 360 stillbirths, could be avoided every year.

The STELLAR program of research aims to reduce Stillbirth by:

Teaching health professionals (especially midwives) about modifiable risk factors for stillbirth to enable them to discuss these with pregnant women

Investigating the epidemiology of stillbirth including conducting case control studies to further explore risk and identify novel risk factors

Exploring appropriate loss care and support, both when a baby dies and beyond, including the subsequent pregnancy

Learning how to best communicate with health care professionals about pregnancy loss and modifiable risk factors for stillbirth.

Raising awareness of stillbirth prevention in the general community by alerting both the pregnant woman and her maternity care provider about potential warning signs and appropriate response to those signs

Identifying modifiable risk factors for stillbirth.