Better Care Could Save Hundreds Of Babies From Stillbirth, Says Report

The lives of hundreds of unborn babies could be saved if their mothers were given better care in pregnancy, according to a major report.

More than 1,000 babies without any congenital abnormality die at or near term, before labour begins, in the UK every year. A team of experts reviewed in detail a representative sample of 85 of these stillbirths and found there were failures in the care of half of them.

The team found that warning signs were missed. Half the pregnant women whose babies died had told medical staff they were worried that the baby in the womb was no longer moving. In half of those cases, either there was no investigation, the baby’s heart rate was monitored but misinterpreted or staff in the maternity unit failed to respond correctly to warning signs.

Tests that would have alerted staff to the need to monitor the pregnancy more closely were not carried out. Women at risk of developing diabetes were not tested. National guidance for checking that the baby in the womb was growing normally was not followed.

Opportunities to learn from the deaths were not taken – in only a quarter of cases was there an internal review of what had happened and the quality of the reviews was highly variable, said the experts.

Sands, the charity supporting parents whose babies are stillborn or die soon after birth, took part in the investigation and said there appeared to have been little progress over the last 15 years.
“One in three babies who are stillborn die at term, a time when they are likely to have survived outside the womb had they been safely delivered earlier,” said Judith Abela, the acting chief executive.
“It’s alarming that 15 years after a similar report, there are still critical gaps in antenatal care, suggesting we have learnt very little in the interim. This report confirms the concerns of hundreds of parents Sands supports every year: that not enough is being done to prevent babies from dying.