Stillbirth Research Centre Hopes to Lower the Rate of Stillbirths in Australia

The launch of a stillbirth research centre in Australia hopes to drive the rate of stillbirth in the country down.

Data shows that the rate of stillbirth in Australia has not changed for the past 20 years — that’s six stillbirths every day or over 2000 a year, and in the majority of cases the cause is unknown.

Now, the launch of the first national research centre dedicated to investigating stillbirth and its causes is set to change the current rate.

The Stillbirth Centre for Research Excellence at the University of Queensland’s Mater Research Institute, which is a collaboration of the MRI, Stillbirth Foundation Australia and the National Health and Medical Research Council, was launched on Monday and aims to reduce stillbirths by a third within the next five years.

Associate Professor Vicki Flenady from the MRI says stillbirth can be prevented. “We have got to dispel these myths and convince people that stillbirths are potentially preventable and they are a significant loss to families,” she said.

Prof Flenady also told AAP that they also aim to focus on managing the care of women with stillbirth risk factors.

A part of the centre will also include a large trial of a new mobile phone app, to be rolled out across 30 hospitals, to educate pregnant women about decreased foetal movement. “This is often an early warning sign the baby is unwell before stillbirth,” Prof Flenady said, adding that they also hope to better understand the causes of stillbirth.

Prof Flenady explained that up to a third of stillbirths can be prevented through simple measures such as the mother sleeping on her left side and eating and drinking the right thing, but the cause of the other two-thirds is unknown.

“Globally we’ve got about four million women at this very time suffering depression after having a stillborn baby and we know that early intervention can help,” she said.