NHS aims to prevent 600 stillbirths a year

SIX hundred babies could be saved from stillbirth each year if hospitals monitored them properly throughout pregnancy, NHS England has said.

New research showed that stillbirths fell by a fifth at the maternity units where new national guidance, known as the Saving Babies’ Lives Care Bundle, had been implemented.

The guidance advises intervening to reduce smoking, detecting underweight babies, informing women about reduced fetal movements and improving monitoring during labour.

Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, said: “There is nothing more devastating than losing a child, so this improvement is welcome and testament to the incredible NHS maternity staff who do everything they can to improve care, saving many babies’ lives as a result.

“We have more to do but these results demonstrate really positive progress towards our ambition to halve the rates of stillbirth, neonatal death and maternal death by 2025.” There are around 665,000 babies born in England each year, but despite falling to its lowest rate in 20 years, there are around 3,000 stillbirths, with one in every 200 babies stillborn.

That figure could be reduced by 600 if all hospitals followed the guidance.

Dr Matthew Jolly, national clinical director for maternity and women’s health at NHS England, said: “These findings show significant progress in the reduction of stillbirth rates.

“This is thanks to the dedicated maternity staff who have developed and implemented the clinical measures we recommend as national best practice. We want to build on the progress we’ve made to make maternity services in England among the safest in the world.”