This first-ever joint stillbirth estimates by the United Nations Inter-Agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation presents the number of babies that are stillborn every year due to pregnancy and birth-related complications, the absence of health workers and basic services. The report also notes that there is a high risk that the COVID-19 pandemic will increase the number of stillbirths. The report calls out a need for better measurement and data of stillbirths as well as improved quality of care during pregnancy and birth.
The first section of the recorded “Data and Parent Voices to End Preventable Deaths” session with UNICEF’s Lucia Hug, from the AlignMNH Opening Forum in April 2021, unpacks the findings in the estimates report.
Key Findings
- Globally in 2019, an estimated 2 million babies were stillborn at 28 weeks or more of gestation, with a global stillbirth rate of 13.9 stillbirths per 1,000 total births.
- Stillbirth rates in 2019 varied widely across regions, from 22.8 stillbirths per 1,000 total births in West and Central Africa to 2.9 in Western Europe.
- Estimated 2.3% was the global annual rate of reduction in stillbirth rate from 2000 to 2019, which was lower than the 2.9% annual rate of reduction in neonatal mortality rate.
- 114 countries had an estimated decrease in stillbirth rate since 2000, while the remaining 81 countries had no decrease in stillbirth rate. Of these countries, 34 were in sub-Saharan Africa, 16 were in East Asia and the Pacific, and 15 were in Latin America and the Caribbean.