[ 2011-01-14 ]

7,000 babies stillborn every day worldwide
Around 7,000 stillbirths occur globally every day,
with the poorest nations worst affected, a series
of papers published in The Lancet suggest.

An overwhelming 98% of the 2.6m stillbirths each
year strike middle and low-income countries, they
say.

Better clinical care and monitoring could halve
stillbirths in poorer countries by 2020, the paper
adds.

Save the Children said current opportunities to
address the problem were currently being missed.

Invisible toll

The UN's Millennium Development goals set out
targets for maternal and child deaths, but the
authors of the Lancet reports suggest stillbirths
are being neglected, and are taking what they call
an "invisible toll" in poorer countries.

Sub-Sahara Africa and South Asian countries
continue to suffer the most.

The report tasks poorer countries with reducing
still births by 50% by the end of the decade and
sets out measures which can be taken.

"Care at birth will give us the biggest return and
saves mothers, newborns and children," Dr Joy Lawn
of Save the Children told the BBC.

"Another really missed opportunity is treating
syphilis during pregnancy and particularly in
southern Africa, syphilis still kills babies and
we estimate that around 136,000 stillbirths could
be averted every year and that's at relatively low
cost - it's about making your antenatal clinic
services work.

"Other critical things would be treating
hypertension in pregnancy, identifying diabetes in
women who are pregnant and managing that better
and then identifying babies that aren't growing
well."

Some countries are already showing the way
forward, according to the report.

Middle-income countries such as Columbia, China,
Mexico and Argentina, have reduced their
stillbirth rates by 40% to 50% in recent years.

Source - BBC

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