Many stillbirths preventable: researchers

Australia lags behind many other high-income countries in preventing stillbirths, with indigenous and other disadvantaged women facing twice the risk of experiencing the tragedy.

Globally the number of maternal and child deaths has significantly fallen since 2000, but stillbirths have remained persistently high with more than 2.6 million babies being stillborn in 2015.

While 98 per cent occur in low and middle-income countries, they also remain a problem for high-income countries, say the authors of a five-paper series Ending Preventable Stillbirths, published in The Lancet on Tuesday.

One paper related to 49 high-income countries which had 46,200 stillbirths, lead author Associate Professor Vicki Flenady, from the Mater Research Institute at the University of Queensland, told an online media briefing.

"They included 20,000 avoidable stillbirths if all countries could reach the best performing countries of less than two per 1000 births," she said.

Australia was "not performing well", ranking number 16 in stillbirths occurring after 28 weeks of gestation.

It had 2.7 cases per 1000, more than double that of the best performing country, Iceland, with 1.3 cases.

While gestation of more than 28 weeks was used for the global studies, Australia defines stillbirths from 20 weeks of gestation, and at least six occur daily nationally.

Australia's stillbirth rate reduction since 2000 was ranked 35.

"We estimate we could prevent 200 families every year suffering the loss of stillbirth after 28 weeks, if we could bring our rates down," Prof Flenady said.

The study found women from lower socio-economic families face twice the risk of delivering a stillborn baby than their wealthier counterparts.

This could be addressed through education and alleviation of poverty, as well as improved access to health care, especially timely, culturally appropriate antenatal care, she said.

Other risk factors included maternal obesity, smoking, and the mother being older than 35.

University of Queensland's Associate Professor Fran Boyle was involved in a global survey of 3500 parents, including 400 from Australia, about the traumatic impacts of stillbirth.

More than 4.2 million women are estimated to be living with symptoms of depression, with their loss and distress being made more difficult because of social attitudes due to stigma and fatalism.

"Negative reactions and misconceptions can be really harmful," she said.

"Almost half said they were told they should move on, forget about it, have another child ... mothers can feel they are to blame."

Improved bereavement care was needed through better training and support for health professionals, while it was important to have good, respectful care available when mothers arrive home without their baby.

Only 10 countries account for two-thirds of the world's stillbirths with the highest numbers in India, followed by a number of African countries.