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Parents
In addition to the series already listed, the Stillbirth CRE has contributed research publications to a number of leading scientific journals and publications. Please see the below list for more information on recent papers or review our research programs.
Authors:
Christopher Edwards, Erika Cavanagh, Sailesh Kumar, Vicki Clifton, Danielle Borg, Jacob Priddle, Wille Marie-Luise, Christopher Drovandi, Davide Fontanarosa.
Perinatal bereavement care during COVID-19 in Australian maternity settings
Authors:
Frances M Boyle, Dell Horey, Julie H Dean, Aditi Lohan, Philippa Middleton, Vicki Flenady.
Perinatal bereavement care is a complex area of practice. The COVID-19 pandemic led to reconfiguration of maternity and perinatal bereavement care services. This study explores Australian health care providers’ perspectives of the impact of COVID-19 on the provision of respectful and supportive care following stillbirth or neonatal death.
Authors:
Vicki L Clifton, Jui Das, Vicki Flenady, Kym Rae.
Asthma is the most common respiratory illness in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. From the Mater Mothers routinely collected perinatal data in Brisbane we have identified that 24% of Indigenous and 17% of non-Indigenous women have pregnancies complicated by asthma. Indigenous women with asthma are more likely to have poorer birth outcomes when compared to non-Indigenous women with asthma, with neonatal death being doubled in asthmatic Indigenous women. These data indicate that asthma management during pregnancy is an unmet need for Indigenous women and essential if we are to avoid these devastat-ing outcomes for Indigenous families.
Guiding Conversations with your healthcare team when your baby dies
Authors:
Fran Boyle, Stillbirth Foundation Australia, Centre of Research Excellence in Stillbirth.
This guide is based on the Clinical Practice Guideline for Care Around Stillbirth and Neonatal Death, which was developed in 2020 by the Centre of Research Excellence in Stillbirth (Stillbirth CRE) and the Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand (PSANZ). The Clinical Practice Guideline is the most current and comprehensive
guideline to assist health care professionals in providing the best possible care for parents when their baby dies or is expected to die.
Epidemiology of Fetal and Neonatal Death
Authors:
Vicki Flenady, Jessica Sexton.
Background and objective:
A perinatal death refers to fetal or neonatal death; combined to calculate the perinatal mortality rate. High perinatal mortality rates indicate unmet public health needs and also deficiencies in clinical care provision. Epidemiological analyses aid in the identification and monitoring of prevention strategies. This chapter provides an overview of the epidemiology of fetal and neonatal death globally including numbers, rates, causes, risk factors and highlights issues which limit the utility of perinatal mortality as a measure of health and quality of care including classification systems to assign causes of perinatal deaths.
Authors:
Vicki Flenady, Chrissie Astell. Laura Singline, Aleena Wojcieszek, Jessica Sexton, David Ellwood, Philippa Middleton, Adrienne Gordon, Caroline Homer, Joshua Vogel, Alyce Wilson, Fran Boyle, Siobhan Loughnan, Christine Andrews.
Background and objective:
Stillbirth is a major public health problem that often has long-lasting psychological, social, and financial burden on parents and families. Globally, an estimated 1.9 million women every year will experience the tragedy of a late-gestation stillbirth (twenty-eight weeks or more). Due to paucity of data, stillbirths below twenty-eight weeks’ gestation are not included in global estimates, and therefore the current global estimate vastly underestimates the incidence of stillbirth.
Inequitable use of health services for Indigenous mothers who experience stillbirth in Australia
Authors:
Emily Callander, Haylee Fox, Kyly Mills, Deanna Stuart-Butler, Philippa Middleton, David Ellwood, Joseph Thomas, Vicki Flenady.
Background and objective:
The purpose of this study was to identify differences in health service expenditure on Indigenous and non-Indigenous women who experience a stillbirth, women’s out-of-pocket costs, and health service use.
Nature-based interventions for bereavement care: a scoping review protocol
Authors:
Anne Cleary, Julie Dean, Danielle Pollock, Lisa McDaid, Fran Boyle
Background and objective:
The objective of this scoping review is to understand the types of nature-based interventions currently used in bereavement care and to map the theories of change explaining how such interventions may support bereavement care.
Authors:
Vicki Flenady, G Gardener, David Ellwood, M Coory, M Weller, KA Warrilow, PF Middleton, AM Wojcieszek, KM Groom, FM Boyle, C East, HLS Lawford, E Callander, JM Said, SP Walker, K Mahomed, C Andrews, A Gordon, JE Norman, C Crowther
Background and objective:
The My Baby’s Movements (MBM) trial aimed to evaluate the impact on stillbirth rates of a multifaceted awareness package (the MBM intervention).
Authors:
Jui Das, Christine Andrews, Vicki Flenady and Vicki Clifton.
Background and objective:
Asthma during pregnancy and extremes of body mass index (BMI) are independently associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes but the impact of the two conditions combined are currently unknown. The aim of this study was to determine the contribution of maternal BMI to adverse birth outcomes in pregnancies complicated by asthma.
Authors:
Vicki Clifton, Jui Das, Vicki Flenady, Kym Rae
Background and objective:
Asthma is the most common respiratory illness in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. From the Mater Mothers routinely collected perinatal data in Brisbane we have identified that 24% of Indigenous and 17% of non-Indigenous women have pregnancies complicated by asthma. Indigenous women with asthma are more likely to have poorer birth outcomes when compared to non-Indigenous women with asthma, with neonatal death being doubled in asthmatic Indigenous women. These data indicate that asthma management during pregnancy is an unmet need for Indigenous women and essential if we are to avoid these devastating outcomes for Indigenous families.
Lead author:
Fran Boyle
Background and objective:
Parent engagement in perinatal mortality review meetings following stillbirth may benefit parents and improve patient safety. We investigated perinatal mortality review meeting practices, including the extent of parent engagement, based on self‐reports from healthcare professionals from maternity care facilities in six high‐income countries.
Lead author:
Robin S Cronin
Background and objective:
Maternal supine going-to-sleep position has been associated with increased risk of late stillbirth (≥28 weeks), but it is unknown if the risk differs between right and left side, and if some pregnancies are more vulnerable.
Lead author:
Caroline Homer
Background and objective:
Strengthening the capacity of midwives to deliver high-quality maternal and newborn health services has been highlighted as a priority by global health organisations. To support low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) in their decisions about investments in health, we aimed to estimate the potential impact of midwives on reducing maternal and neonatal deaths and stillbirths under several intervention coverage scenarios.
Lead author:
Erika Ota
Background and objective:
Stillbirth is generally defined as a death prior to birth at or after 22 weeks’ gestation. It remains a major public health concern globally. Antenatal interventions may reduce stillbirths and improve maternal and neonatal outcomes in settings with high rates of stillbirth. There are several key antenatal strategies that aim to prevent stillbirth including nutrition, and prevention and management of infections. The objective is to summarise the evidence from Cochrane systematic reviews on the effects of antenatal interventions for preventing stillbirth for low risk or unselected populations of women.
Lead author:
Christine Andrews
Background and objective:
In 2015, the stillbirth rate after 28 weeks (late gestation) in Australia was 35% higher than countries with the lowest rates globally. Reductions in late gestation stillbirth rates have steadily improved in Australia. However, to amplify and sustain reductions, more needs to be done to reduce practice variation and address suboptimal care. Implementing bundles for maternity care improvement in the UK have been associated with a 20% reduction in stillbirth rates. A similar approach is underway in Australia; the Safer Baby Bundle (SBB) with five elements: 1) supporting women to stop smoking in pregnancy, 2) improving detection and management of fetal growth restriction, 3) raising awareness and improving care for women with decreased fetal movements, 4) improving awareness of maternal safe going-to-sleep position in late pregnancy, 5) improving decision making about the timing of birth for women with risk factors for stillbirth.
Lead author:
Christine Andrews
Background and objective:
‘Bundles of care’ are being implemented to improve key practice gaps in perinatal care. As part of our development of a stillbirth prevention bundle, we consulted with Australian maternity care providers. The objective is to gain the insights of Australian maternity care providers to inform the development and implementation of a bundle of care for stillbirth prevention.
Lead author:
Vicki Flenady
Background and objective:
Stillbirth is a devastating pregnancy outcome that has a profound and lasting impact on women and families. Globally, there are over 2.6 million stillbirths annually and progress in reducing these deaths has been slow. Maternal perception of decreased fetal movements (DFM) is strongly associated with stillbirth. However, maternal awareness of DFM and clinical management of women reporting DFM is often suboptimal. The My Baby’s Movements trial aims to evaluate an intervention package for maternity services including a mobile phone application for women and clinician education (MBM intervention) in reducing late gestation stillbirth rates.
Level 3, Aubigny Place
Mater Research Institute
Raymond Terrace,
South Brisbane QLD 4101
The University of Queensland Faculty of Medicine