For Prevention

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ISA’s Decreased Fetal Movement Position Statement.

PUSH for Empowered Pregnancy Stillbirth Diagnosis & Prevention Symposium, held on Saturday 22 May 2021. Check out the video and all resources here

World Health Organization Clinical Guidance 

• • “Pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum and newborn care: A guide for essential practice (3rd edition)” available in English and Slovenian
  • “WHO recommendations on antenatal care for a positive pregnancy experience” available in English, French, Russian, Spanish: https://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/publications/maternal_perinatal_health/anc-positive-pregnancy-experience/en/
  • “Managing complications in pregnancy and childbirth: a guide for midwives and doctors” https://www.who.int/maternal_child_adolescent/documents/managing-complications-pregnancy-childbirth/en/

Additional Important Resources

Group B Strep International is conducting a survey of mothers worldwide (with and without a baby infected by group B strep) to help identify gaps in care and communication regarding group B strep (GBS) disease in babies. Find out more here: 

In Australia, the ‘Still Six Lives’ campaign is an initiative of Red Nose Australia, in partnership with Sands, Stillbirth Foundation and the Centre of Research Excellence in Stillbirth. Our role is to provide evidence-based resources and evaluation of the campaign, which complements the material available in the Safer Baby Bundle for maternity healthcare providers and women receiving maternity care. The Still Six Lives campaign will run for six months, with messages appearing on television, online video, digital advertising, social media, radio, and other paid media

Maternity healthcare professionals should ensure they have access to the latest evidence-based training and resources by completing the Safer Baby Bundle eLearning. This online training focuses on the five key elements of the Safer Baby Bundle:

• • Smoking cessation
  • Decreased fetal movements
  • Fetal growth restriction
  • Maternal going-to-sleep position
  • Timing of birth

Star Legacy announces: Our Safer Pregnancy Cards are now available in 7 languages – English, Spanish, Hmong, Somali, French, Arabic, and Turkish. You can these (and all our brochures) for free by visiting our store.

Tune in to our Indigenous Midwives conversation, co-hosted by ICM, the Wilson Center’s Maternal Health Initiative and UNFPA, and featuring a panel of Indigenous midwives from around the world. Listen to the recording here

Resources from the Pregnancy Loss Research Group (PLRG) at University College Cork 

Resources from Tommy’s stillbirth research centre in St Mary’s Hospital in Manchester https://www.tommys.org/pregnancy-information/health-professionals

IMPROVE is a new online training package designed to support healthcare professionals in responding to women who have experienced stillbirth, conduct perinatal autopsy and mortality reviews, and communicate with bereaved parents.

Resources on bereavement support for fathers, from ISA board member Francine de Montigny at the University of Quebec (also available in French and subtitled in Portuguese): 

• The youtube documentary “Helping Men in Distress” illustrates ways to create a bond of trust with men in crisis, and to help them in their distress. Through the testimony of seven health and social service practitioners – nurses, a social worker, a physician, a psychotherapist, educators, researchers – this 17 minute video illustrates different emotions and reactions that men can experience. The practitioners share their way of establishing a relationship of trust with a man in crisis and propose interventions to reach men who are entrenched in silence, who are depressed, living a bereavement experience, aggressive or angry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROKgjOXh47g

Research related to prevention of stillbirth and neonatal death

The PURPOSE Study Group. Preventable stillbirths in India and Pakistan: a prospective, observational study. BJOG 2021 PURPOSE_BJOG

The Lancet series: Maternal and child undernutrition progress. The latest Series on Maternal and Child Undernutrition Progress, includes three new papers that build upon findings from the previous 2008 and 2013 Series, which established an evidence-based global agenda for tackling undernutrition over the past decade. The papers conclude that despite modest progress in some areas, maternal and child undernutrition remains a major global health concern, particularly as recent gains may be offset by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Series reiterates that previously highlighted interventions continue to be effective at reducing stunting, micronutrient deficiencies, and child deaths and emphasizes the importance of delivering these nutrition interventions within the first 1,000 days of life. However, despite this evidence, program delivery has lagged behind the science and further financing is needed to scale up proven interventions. Specifically, evidence on the effectiveness of antenatal multiple micronutrient supplementation in reducing the risk of stillbirths, low birthweight, and babies born small-for-gestational age has strengthened.

Zamboni, K., Singh, S., Tyagi, M. et al. Effect of collaborative quality improvement on stillbirths, neonatal mortality and newborn care practices in hospitals of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, India: evidence from a quasi-experimental mixed-methods study. Implementation Sci 16, 4 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13012-020-01058-z

Potential impact of midwives in preventing and reducing maternal and neonatal mortality and stillbirths: a Lives Saved Tool modelling study: A new study on the Impact of Midwives launched on 1st Dec 2020 by UNFPA and the Wilson Center – download the infographic Midwives_Save_Lives_Infographic

Shining a Spotlight on Stillbirths: research by Dr Amy Hough at LSHTM

Effect of a quality improvement package for intrapartum and immediate newborn care on fresh stillbirth and neonatal mortality among preterm and low-birthweight babies in Kenya and Uganda: a cluster-randomised facility-based trial D Walker et al. Lancet Glob Health 2020; 8: e1061–70

Sociocultural, political, and health system-related determinants of perinatal deaths in Jordan from the perspectives of health care providers: a qualitative study. Khader YS, Bawadi H, Khasawneh W, Alyahya MS, Shattnawi K, Al-Sheyab NA, Al Obeisat S, Asad M, Khatatneh K, Alkhdour MM, Al-Hamdan Z, Batieha A. J Matern Fetal Neonatal Med 2020 Jul 29;1-10.

Invitation to participate in the WAVES Study, a comprehensive survey of mothers worldwide (with and without a baby infected by group B streptococcus) to help identify the gaps in care and communication regarding group B strep (GBS) disease in babies. More info is at gbs-intl.org/WAVES

Other Research

2019 Global Health Estimates from WHO
WHO’s newly released 2019 Global Health Estimates found that noncommunicable diseases make up 7 of the world’s top 10 causes of death. Specifically, heart disease remains the number one leading cause of death, while diabetes and dementia are among the top 10. Neonatal conditions are ranked 5th. However, deaths from neonatal conditions are one of the categories for which the global decrease in deaths in absolute numbers over the past two decades has been the greatest: these conditions killed 2 million newborns and young children in 2019, 1.2 million fewer than in 2000.

WHO & UNICEF Release Report on WASH
A new report published by UNICEF & WHO—titled, “Fundamentals first: Universal water, sanitation, and hygiene services in health care facilities for safe, quality care”—found that almost 1.8 billion people are at a heightened risk of contracting COVID-19 and other diseases because they use or work in health care facilities without basic water services.