The numbers are bad. Really bad.
Let us prepare you: the numbers and figures you're about to see are shocking. The situation is dire. Babies are dying, thousands of them, completely needlessly. As a country, we should be very, very ashamed.
The good news is that we can change this.
Check out the Empowered Pregnancy page for our MUST HAVE tips for an empowered pregnancy - the things we wish someone had told us before we had a stillbirth, the things that might have kept our babies safe.
Not every stillbirth is preventable. But many are. And every parent deserves to know that they and their provider did everything possible to try.
Stillbirth: The Silent Crisis
The problem begins with awareness.
Averaging over 20,000 deaths annually over the past five years (CDC), stillbirth claims more children’s (age 0-14) lives each year than prematurity, SIDS, car accidents, drowning, guns, fire, flu, poison, and listeria combined.
Just like any of those other leading causes of childhood death, not every stillbirth is preventable - but there are many things parents and providers can do to lower the risks. The difference is that, when it comes to stillbirth, no one is warning parents until it's already too late.
Stillbirth by the Numbers
Let's be real: these numbers are not good.
And no pregnancy is immune. In fact, research has shown that 80% of stillbirth mothers exhibited zero known risk factors at the start of pregnancy. This includes commonly cited risk factors such as race, maternal age, previous stillbirth, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, history of drug addiction or smoking, etc.
However, just because risk factors aren’t present at the start of pregnancy doesn’t mean they won’t develop later on. Red flags like hypertension, gestational diabetes, fetal growth restriction, small placenta size, infection, premature cervical dilation, etc. can all occur in any pregnancy - but because patients and their providers are falsely reassured by the absence of major risk factors at the beginning of pregnancy, many vulnerable babies and mothers fall through the cracks of the US’s current “risk stratification” which reserves close monitoring and much testing for only mothers deemed “high risk.”
The bottom line is that there is no “safe zone” in pregnancy, and no pregnancy is 100% safe from stillbirth.
Sources: CDC Fetal Deaths, CDC Natality, NCES (Class Size)
Important Note: Like other aspects of racial disparities in health, when discussing risk factors for stillbirth, "race" is a proxy for racism. (Expand to learn more)
Is Stillbirth Preventable?
Other countries have shown that it absolutely is, if we care enough to try.
These numbers speak for themselves. Stillbirth prevention is possible.
Important Note: The US's abysmal performance in reducing stillbirth compared to our international peers is real.
It's tempting to assume that other countries are reducing stillbirth rates faster than us because they have more room to improve - but that is simply not true.
The chart below shows the US's Average Rate of Reduction (ARR) in Stillbirth when compared only to countries who started with stillbirth rates that were the same or better than the US. If they can improve their rates, we can too!
Let us show you how YOU can change this.
