Lancet Stillbirths Series

Ending Preventable Stillbirths

“Ending Preventable Stillbirths” – A series in The Lancet aiming to accelerate global action to end preventable stillbirths

A Global Call To Action

More than 2.6 million stillbirths continue to occur globally every year. Half of all stillbirths occur during labour and birth. Yet most of these 1.3 million deaths could be prevented with improved quality of care.

The Lancet series on Ending Preventable Stillbirths was published in January 2016 and aims to maintain momentum and build on strategies to prevent stillbirths and provide better care to women and families following stillbirth. Many Stillbirth CRE investigators and collaborators played a major role in developing and disseminating this series, including our Director Vicki Flenady, who led the fourth paper in the series, titled “Stillbirths: Recall to action in high-income countries”.

Executive Summary

Learn more – Comprehensive summary of the series

Lay Summaries For Parents, Families, And The General Community

Our collaborator, The International Stillbirth Alliance, has developed a suite of plain language summaries of the series.

• Executive summary
• English language summary
• Various foreign language summaries

International Collaboration

The Stillbirth CRE’s work is strengthened through collaboration with leading international researchers and institutions committed to reducing the global burden of stillbirth. Building on the call to action of the Lancet Ending Preventable Stillbirths Series, these partnerships support the generation of evidence, policy translation, capacity strengthening and implementation of effective strategies to improve outcomes for women, babies and families worldwide.

Key International Partners

MARCH Centre, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

The MARCH Centre aims to ensure that women, children and adolescents not only survive but thrive across the life course, contributing to a healthier, more equitable and sustainable world. Its core goals are to advance research and evidence-based policy through global collaboration and to strengthen the capacity of current and future leaders to improve the health of these populations worldwide.

Professor Hannah Blencowe

Hannah Blencowe is an Associate Professor of Global Maternal Child Health and co-director of the Centre for Maternal Adolescent Reproductive and Child Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She is a clinician and epidemiologist by training, with over twenty years of experience in global health. Her research has contributed to improvements in understanding in the epidemiology and impact of stillbirth, preterm birth and birth defects globally. She contributes to ongoing UN-led work to improve perinatal data through providing country technical support and supporting further research as part of the UN-IGME Core Stillbirth Estimation Group.

Partnership Principles

The Stillbirth CRE partners with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), including the MARCH Centre, through collaborations grounded in equity, mutual respect, and shared commitment to improving outcomes for women and babies globally. We ensure accurate and consistent acknowledgement of all partners and contributors across our work, including major initiatives such as the suite of Lancet Stillbirths Series.

Full papers and comments

• Full Series Papers and Comments

You will need to create an account to download the documents, but there is no cost to do this. All articles are free of charge.