Best practice adoption could prevent 600 stillbirths

NHS England has said that an estimated 600 stillbirths annually could be prevented if maternity units adopt national best practice.

There are currently around 665,000 babies born in England each year, but despite falling to its lowest rate in 20 years, there are around 3,000 stillbirths, with one in every 200 babies stillborn. However, clinical improvements such as better monitoring of a baby’s growth and movement in pregnancy, as well as better monitoring in labour, means that maternity staff have helped save more than 160 babies’ lives across 19 maternity units.

The independent evaluation report shows that stillbirths fell by a fifth at the maternity units where national guidance, known as the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle, had been implemented. The guidance is now being introduced across the country and has the potential if these findings were replicated, to prevent an estimated 600 stillbirths.

Key successes identified in the report include: a 59 per cent increase detection attributed to better monitoring and scanning in pregnancy, a higher number of women attending hospital due to reduced movement and a decline in the number of women smoking, at time of booking.

Matthew Jolly, National Clinical Director for Maternity and Women’s Health at NHS England, said: “These findings show significant progress in the reduction of stillbirth rates. This is thanks to the dedicated maternity staff who have developed and implemented the clinical measures we recommend as national best practice. We know more can be done to avoid the tragedy of stillbirth and as we develop the 10 year plan for the NHS, we want to build on the progress we’ve made to make maternity services in England among the safest in the world.”

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “There is nothing more devastating than losing a child so this improvement is welcome and testament to the incredible NHS maternity staff who do everything they can to improve care; saving many babies’ lives as a result. We still have more to do but these results demonstrate really positive progress towards our ambition to halve the rates of stillbirth, neonatal death and maternal death by 2025.”