Start to talk about stillbirth urges UK doctor

Families are being urged to end the silence veiling the tragedy of stillbirth and start to talk about it.

Dr Alexander Heazell, is calling for stillbirth to be prioritised by the government and support groups as the impact it has on families is greater than is recognised.

Dr Heazell has published a personal account of his own experience of stillbirth on the British Medical Journal website, having experienced the tragedy first hand with his own son.

There is an average of ten stillbirths every day in UK hospitals, with more than 4000 a year.

Despite medical advances, the rate of stillbirths has not fallen for more than a decade in UK hospitals, affecting one in 200 parents.

Stillbirth is not as rare as people think it is, being more common than Down’s syndrome and cot death.

In 45 per cent of cases, ‘suboptimal’ care was given as the cause.

Doctor Heazell writes: “Thirty years ago no one talked about cancer. Today the diagnosis and treatment of cancers is improving all the time. If parents are brave enough to speak, and doctors, midwives, and policy makers courageous enough to listen to them, then the barriers to reducing the number of these deaths can be overcome. In time stillbirth, like cancer, will no longer be taboo but a condition that’s openly debated, researched, treated and prevented.”