Stillborn births aren’t declining very much. More than 2 million babies are stillborn worldwide every year, and almost 26,000 of them are in the U.S., reported researchers in a comprehensive series on fetal deaths in The Lancet. Poor medical care is a big factor in areas like sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where three-quarters of the deaths occur. Researchers analyzed 96 studies of stillbirth in high-income countries and calculated how different risk factors would affect the countries with the highest stillbirth rate (U.S., Australia, Canada, Netherlands and the UK).
They found that in high-income countries, obesity is the biggest risk factor for a stillbirth. About 4,000 stillbirths in the U.S. may be attributed to being overweight, they calculated. Putting on weight between pregnancies, even if you weren’t overweight to begin with, will increase the odds of a stillbirth too. Heavy smoking nearly doubles the odds of a stillbirth—some 1,097 deaths may be attributed to mothers smoking more than 10 cigarettes per day. And waiting until later in life to have a baby may increase the odds of a stillbirth by 65% -- the researchers calculated 1,116 deaths could be related to giving birth after age 35.
