When my son Mikki was born on 27 August last year, he made me as proud as I was sad. Mikki was born in silence. Two days earlier, my wife and I were told he had died in her womb after 34 weeks of pregnancy. At no point during those weeks did we think this might happen to us.
Knowing what I now know about stillbirth, it seems our son could have had a chance.
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When Mikki鈥檚 movements decreased, instead of being reassured that all was well, his condition might have been monitored and his birth induced before it was too late.
In my country, the Netherlands, as in the UK and other high income nations, stillbirth tends to regarded as 鈥渘ature鈥檚 way鈥�, and unavoidable. About 1 in 200 babies are stillborn in most European countries 鈥� . These children were thought to be too weak to survive and the experience regarded as negligible compared with the death of a child after birth.
As a result, for a long time stillbirth has not been on the political agenda, and was taboo among parents. Yet experts say that up to .
It is true that some babies die in the womb as a result of severe congenital problems. But the majority do not. In those cases, as with our son, the cause of death is a dysfunctional placenta. As a result, growth and development stagnates, which can cause premature birth or, as happened to Mikki, a fatal combination of starvation and lack of oxygen.
We need to talk about stillbirths
So-called 鈥渇etal growth restriction鈥� cannot be treated, but babies like Mikki can be saved by inducing birth, or in an emergency, carrying out a caesarean section. But only if their condition is diagnosed in time.
So I applaud the 聽guidance launched by the National Health Service in England at the end of March. It contains useful and clear information on what professionals and parents can do to help prevent stillbirth, by improving their lifestyle and symptom awareness. The aim is to halve rates by 2030.
Hopefully, the increased attention will break the taboo and improve dialogue about stillbirth. I would encourage all countries to follow suit.
But this is just a start. We also need systematic post-mortems and evaluations of cases to better understand direct and indirect causes and to improve pregnancy and birth care. And we need better diagnostic methods, to distinguish abnormal from normal pregnancies, to increase the detection rate and prevent unnecessary interventions, such as more and and the use of sensitive in maternal blood and urine.
We also need to understand what causes the placental dysfunction and how it could be treated or prevented. To achieve this, stillbirth should become a serious research topic, and not just for clinicians.
Stillbirth has a . Seven months after the birth of our son, our hearts are still filled with grief. Stillbirth has way too much impact to be belittled. It is time to break the silence everywhere and do all we can to save these babies.
聽If you need support regarding the issues raised in this article, call Sands, the stillbirth and neonatal death charity on +44 20 7436 5881
