A stillbirth every 10 seconds worldwide
A stillbirth is widely defined as the loss of a foetus from 28 weeks’ gestation – a definition recommended by the World Health Organisation - and a miscarriage is defined as the loss of a pregnancy up to 20 weeks.
The authors and collaborators on this recent study point out that pregnancy losses occurring between 20 and 28 weeks fall between these two thresholds and can therefore remain undocumented.
Their study, published in The Lancet in November 2024, collected data that included stillbirth from 20 weeks, thus documenting pregnancy losses between 20 and 28 weeks. The authors reason that advances in neonatal care now mean that babies at 21 weeks’ gestation may be saved and that this justifies inclusion of pregnancy losses between 20 and 28 weeks.
The study collected data on stillbirths from 11,412 sources across 185 countries and territories and found that approximately 3 million stillbirths occurred globally in 2021 after at least 20 weeks' gestation, of which one third were between 20 and 28 weeks’ gestation. This number equates to an average of approximately 8,328 stillbirths per day: one every 10 seconds.
Stillbirths or miscarriages are devastating losses and the authors state, often avoidable. In countries where antenatal care and skilled labour and birth attendants are not widely available or accessible, the rates of stillbirths are predictably higher than in countries with an effective antenatal and postnatal health service. The study gives detailed information on specific countries and areas highlighting the links between poverty, inadequate or inaccessible perinatal care and increased rates of stillbirth and miscarriage (including losses between 20 and 28 weeks). The authors conclude that some of these losses would be avoidable if more women had access to effective prenatal and antenatal care.
Read more: Comfort, H. et al. (2024) Global, regional, and national stillbirths at 20 weeks' gestation or longer in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2021: Findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study, 2021.The Lancet, Volume 404(10466):1955 – 1988.
