Stillbirths recently received a bump in the press. For more, a Factbox via Reuters.
Briefly: A stillbirth is any baby that dies in the third trimester prior to (or during) birth. There are about 2.6 million stillbirths annually. The primary causes are childbirth complications, maternal infections, maternal health problems, etc. 98% of all stillbirths occur in low-and-middle-income countries, mostly among the poor. An African woman is 24x more likely to experience a stillbirth than a woman in a high income country. Over 66% of stillbirths occur in rural families. Over half of the stillbirths occur at birth and are babies that could be saved with access to quality care. Stillbirths declined by 1.1% from 1995 to 2009.
Ten countries account for 66% of the world’s stillbirths: with the exception of Ethiopia all are generally considered unreached, and Ethiopia is home to several unreached peoples. If you are at work among an unreached people group for longer than a year or two, the odds are high that a woman you know will have a stillbirth. Are you ready to respond?
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