Australia’s Stillbirth Rate Is Still Too High

Australia is one of the safest places in the world to have a baby, but the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has called attention to the “unacceptable” number of families experiencing a stillbirth.

A new report released by the AIHW in association with the University of New South Wales’ National Perinatal Epidemiology and Statistics Unit shows that almost 1 in 100 pregnancies at or past 20 weeks will end with the death of the baby. The majority of the deaths are stillbirths.

Between 1993 and 2012, despite improvements in many other areas relating to pregnancy and care, the overall rate of perinatal deaths (that being stillbirths or neonatal deaths) have remained fairly stable. However, while neonatal deaths, i.e. deaths within the first four weeks of life, went down by 18%, the rate of stillbirth actually increased by 13%. In 2011 and 2012 there were almost 4500 stillbirths reported in Australia, making up about three-quarters of all the perinatal deaths in these years.

In response to the report Associate Professor Georgina Chambers said that the 13% increase might not necessarily indicate a clear trend. For some time in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, abortions after the 20 week mark were still reported as stillbirths due to an increase in the perinatal abnormalities that could be detected. But Victoria Bowring, the general manager at the Stillbirth Foundation said that the report was shocking, and was a pertinent reminder that the numbers were still too high.

“According to these figures one child dies from stillbirth every four hours in Australia and government is doing next to nothing to fund research into why it happens and promote education about how to prevent it,” Ms Bowring said.

There are a number of factors associated with perinatal deaths, including the mother’s age. Data from the report showed that the rate of stillbirths in both teenage mothers and those over 45 had more than doubled.

Some Positive News

The report wasn’t all bad news though. It showed that the gap between the rate of stillbirths to Indigenous versus non-Indigenous mothers had narrowed considerably, with the rate among Indigenous mothers dropping a substantial 16%. However, Indigenous mothers are still around 1.8 times more likely to lose a child to stillbirth. This translates to about 17.1 deaths per 1000 Indigenous women, compared to 9.6 deaths per 1,000 non-Indigenous women.

Professor Chambers was reported as saying that she hopes a more comprehensive analysis of the data will assist experts to better understand what causes perinatal deaths, so that stillbirth prevention can be improved.

Source – Sky News