RISK FACTORS OF STILL BIRTH IN INDIA: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW ARTICLE

Abstract

Stillbirths constitute a major part of perinatal deaths, yet they largely remain invisible^. Worldwide about 2.65 million babies were born as stillbirth in 2008. Out of these about 98% of the third-trimester stillbirths occurred in low-income and middle-income countries. Although officially, India has been able to reduce its stillbirth rate (i.e. the number of stillbirths per 1,000 total births) from 6.0 in 2011 to 4.0 in 2018. However, a recent report published by the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME) shows that India's stillbirth rates (i.e. stillbirths per 1,000 total births) were 29.6 in 2000, 20.2 in 2010 and 13.9 in 2019 – much higher than what is reported officially. Several risk factors have been associated with an increased risk of stillbirth: including maternal medical factors, maternal characteristics, fetal factors, socio-demographic factors and behavioral factors.

Even though there are certain risk factors for stillbirth, most individual stillbirths are remained unidentified. Identification of risk factors of stillbirths is crucial to facilitate designing of a stillbirth prevention strategy.