Priority Setting Partnership publish 11 key research questions to reduce the number of stillbirths
Read the article: Research priorities for stillbirth: process overview and results from UK Stillbirth Priority Setting Partnership
Published 2 December 2015.
Read the press release by Central Manchester Hospitals
Read the press release by Tommy's
Comment from UOG Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Basky Thilaganathan
‘Obstetric care has evolved greatly with the introduction of newer technologies and tests to assist in improved screening for adverse pregnancy outcome in the mother and baby. Despite these apparent advances, stillbirth rates continue unabated over the last two decades, at around 1 in every 250 pregnancies. Almost certainly, part of the problem revolves around the fact that clinicians are willing to accept the pseudodiagnosis of 'unexplained stillbirth' in many of these cases - something that would be deemed unacceptable in adulthood. Importantly also, there seems to be an apparent lack of consensus about the direction or strategy for clinical management and future research in this field. New research published in UOG and led by Alex Heazell brought together obstetricians, midwives, parents, third-sector organizations, research funders and pathologists under a Stillbirth Priority Settings Partnership to identify 11 key priorities for research into the reduction of stillbirth and improving care for parents who have experienced a stillbirth. The gathering of information took over 18 months to complete and included over 550 people and dealt with 1200 potential priorities - which was whittled down to 11 priorities and included an emphasis on the content and delivery of health services, optimal bereavement care, maternity care in subsequent pregnancies, responding to symptoms and signs relating to impending stillbirth. There is great hope that the information set out here will provide a solid framework for shaping the stillbirth research agenda in the future.’