The most common symptom of stillbirth is when you stop feeling your baby moving and kicking. Others include cramps, pain or bleeding from the vagina. Call your health care provider right away or go to the emergency room if you have any of these conditions.
At or after 40 weeks, the risk of stillbirth increases, especially for women 35 or older. Their risk, research shows, is doubled from 39 weeks to 40 and is more than six times as high at 42 weeks.
Often there aren't any noticeable symptoms or signs before a stillbirth. But there are some things that you should look out for during your pregnancy.
In more than 1 of every 10 stillbirths, the fetus had a genetic or structural birth defect that probably or possibly caused the death. Infection. In more than 1 of every 10 stillbirths, the death was likely caused either by an infection in the fetus or in the placenta, or by a serious infection in the mother.
Most women less than 20 weeks of pregnancy do not notice any symptoms of a fetal demise. The test used to check for a fetal demise in the second trimester is an ultrasound examination to see if the baby is moving and growing. Fetal demise is diagnosed when the ultrasound examination shows no fetal heart activity.
Stillbirth in Australia
In Australia, 6 babies are stillborn each day, affecting more than 2,000 Australian families each year.
15, 2017 draws our attention to a bleak statistic – an estimated one in four pregnancies end in a loss. Many of these are early miscarriages. But in Canada about one in 125 pregnancies end in a stillbirth – that is, the death of a fetus in utero after 20 weeks gestation.
Most babies born unexpectedly without a heartbeat can be successfully resuscitated in the delivery room. Of those successfully resuscitated, 48% survive with normal outcome or mild-moderate disability.
Stillbirth occurs when a baby dies in utero at 20 weeks of pregnancy or later. Medical professionals don't always know why stillbirths happen, but some common causes include poor fetal growth, placental abruption, and birth defects.
Unemployed mothers were similarly more likely to have stillborn babies (2.85x higher risk - 6.12% vs 1.32%). High levels of perceived stress were shown to double the risk of stillbirth (3.57% vs 1.17%) independent of other social factors and pregnancy complications that can put pressure on mothers.
While most often, a decrease in fetal movement is not a sign that anything is wrong, sometimes, there is a situation that needs monitoring or intervention by your doctor. The most common is that you have either low or excess amniotic fluid. If there isn't enough amniotic fluid, your baby can't move around as freely.
Confirming the baby has died
Sometimes a mother may still feel her baby moving after the death has been confirmed. This can happen when the mother changes position. In this case, the mother may be offered another ultrasound scan.
Stillbirth can occur without symptoms, but the main one is not feeling fetal movement. 2 Doctors often instruct women who are past 28 weeks pregnant to track fetal kick counts at least once a day.
Research has shown that in the third trimester (after 28 weeks of pregnancy) going to sleep on your back increases your risk of stillbirth. As the link has now been shown in four separate research trials, our advice is to go to sleep on your side in the third trimester because it is safer for your baby.
being over 35 years of age. smoking, drinking alcohol or misusing drugs while pregnant. being obese – having a body mass index above 30. having a pre-existing physical health condition, such as epilepsy.
Stillbirth can be diagnosed by ultrasound examination to show that the baby's heart is no longer beating. After delivery, the baby is found to be stillborn if there are no signs of life such as breathing, heartbeat, and movements.
Stillbirth has many causes: intrapartum complications, hypertension, diabetes, infection, congenital and genetic abnormalities, placental dysfunction, and pregnancy continuing beyond forty weeks. It is a catastrophic event with lasting consequences on all of society.
What causes a stillbirth? There can be a number of reasons why a baby is stillborn however sometimes a cause cannot be found. In Australia, the major causes of stillbirth are infection, the health of the mother, bleeding, a premature labour that cannot be stopped or an abnormality with the developing baby.
The baby may also benefit. The risk of an unexplained or unexpected stillbirth may be reduced by cesarean section, as may be the risk of complications of labour such as clinical chorioamnionitis, fetal heart rate abnormalities and cord prolapse.
Most babies (91%) in Australia are born at term (37–41 weeks). This is similar across the states and territories and has been stable over time.
To be safe, call your doctor right away if you don't count 10 kicks in two hours (or in the normal amount of time it takes to count 10 of your baby's movements). Also call if you notice any significant increase or decrease in fetal movement from day to day, or any other change in your baby's normal movement patterns.
Multiple factors can decrease perception of movement, including early gestation, a reduced volume of amniotic fluid, fetal sleep state, obesity, anterior placenta (up to 28 weeks gestation), smoking and nulliparity.