Almost 2 million babies are stillborn every year – or 1 every 16 seconds – according to the first-ever joint stillbirth estimates released by UNICEF, WHO, the World Bank Group and the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, according to a press release.
The majority of stillbirths, 84 percent, occur in low- and lower-middle- income countries, according to the new report, “A Neglected Tragedy: The Global Burden of Stillbirths.” In 2019, three out of four stillbirths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa or Southern Asia. A stillbirth is defined in the report as a baby born with no signs of life at 28 weeks of pregnancy or more.
The report warns that the COVID-19 pandemic could worsen the global number of stillbirths. A 50 percent reduction in healthcare services due to the pandemic could cause nearly 200,000 additional stillbirths over a 12-month period in 117 low- and middle-income countries. This corresponds to an increase in the number of stillbirths by 11.1 percent. According to modeling done for the report by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 13 countries could see a 20 percent increase or more in the number of stillbirths over a 12-month period.
Over 40 percent of stillbirths occur during labor—a loss that could be avoided with access to a trained healthcare worker at childbirth and timely emergency obstetric care. Around half of stillbirths in sub-Saharan Africa and Central and Southern Asia occur during labor, compared to 6 percent in Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand.
Even before the pandemic caused critical disruptions in healthcare services, few women in low- and middle-income countries received timely and high-quality care to prevent stillbirths. Half of the 117 countries analyzed in the report have coverage that ranges from a low of less than 2 percent to a high of only 50 percent for eight important maternal health interventions such as C-section, malaria prevention, management of hypertension in pregnancy and syphilis detection and treatment. Coverage for assisted vaginal delivery - a critical intervention for preventing stillbirths during labor – is estimated to reach less than half of pregnant women who need it.
Ethnic minorities in high-income countries, in particular, may lack access to enough quality healthcare. The report cites that Inuit populations in Canada, for example, have been observed to have stillbirth rates nearly three times higher than the rest of Canada, and African American women in the United States have nearly twice the risk of stillbirth compared to white women.
