When pregnancies last for 40 weeks or longer, there is an increase in the risk of stillbirth and neonatal death.
“This is considered to play a role in the stillbirths and poor outcomes after delivery,” Thangaratinam said by email. At 37 weeks, the risk of stillbirth was roughly 1 for every 10,000 pregnancies, the study found. This risk steadily rose, reaching roughly 32 stillbirths for every 10,000 pregnancies by 42 weeks.
While the risk of stillbirth is increased in pregnancies that go beyond 42 weeks, it is still relatively small, at 4 to 7 deaths per 1000 deliveries, as opposed to 2 to 3 deaths per 1000 deliveries in women who deliver between 37 and 42 weeks.
At or after 40 weeks, the risk of stillbirth increases, especially for women 35 or older. Their risk, research shows, is doubled from 39 weeks to 40 and is more than six times as high at 42 weeks.
Commonly reported causes of stillbirth include complications during childbirth, haemorrhage before childbirth (including placental abruption), infections and maternal conditions, and pregnancy complications with fetal growth restriction as a common underlying cause.
The biggest nongenetic risk factors for a stillbirth in the United States are being an older mother; expecting more than one baby; having no other children; smoking; using drugs or alcohol; and having obesity, diabetes (gestational or not) or high blood pressure, according to the American College of Obstetricians and ...
The most common symptom of stillbirth is when you stop feeling your baby moving and kicking. Others include cramps, pain or bleeding from the vagina. Call your health care provider right away or go to the emergency room if you have any of these conditions.
Stillbirth in Australia
In Australia, 6 babies are stillborn each day, affecting more than 2,000 Australian families each year.
Other risks include an increased chance of an assisted vaginal delivery or cesarean delivery. There also is a higher chance of infection and postpartum hemorrhage when your pregnancy goes past your due date.
Symptoms of tokophobia
extreme fear of birth defects, stillbirth or maternal death. feelings of dread at the thought of pregnancy and birth. insistence on a caesarean section for the birth.
After a fetus dies, labour will usually begin on its own within 2 weeks. Many women don't want to wait that long. They choose to have labour induced. This means going to the hospital and, usually, getting medicine that starts the labour process.
The fetus may have died in the uterus weeks or hours before labor. Rarely, the fetus may die during labor. Although prenatal care has drastically improved over the years, the reality is stillbirths still happen and often go unexplained.
Many will let pregnant women go up to two weeks over. After 42 weeks, however, the baby's health might be at risk. A very small number of babies die unexpectedly if they are still in the womb beyond 42 weeks of pregnancy. It is unclear why the risks of a death of the baby rise as the weeks go by.
Problems with the placenta.
One example of a placental problem that causes stillbirth is insufficient blood flow to the placenta. In the SCRN study, placental problems were the leading cause of stillbirths that took place before birth, and these deaths tended to occur after 24 weeks of pregnancy.
There's a higher risk of stillbirth if you go over 42 weeks pregnant, although most babies remain healthy. At the moment, there's no way to reliably predict which babies are at increased risk of stillbirth, so induction is offered if you do not go into labour by 42 weeks.
The risk of stillbirth at term increases with gestational age from 2.1 per 10,000 ongoing pregnancies at 37 weeks of gestation up to 10.8 per 10,000 ongoing pregnancies at 42 weeks of gestation.
Most babies (91%) in Australia are born at term (37–41 weeks). This is similar across the states and territories and has been stable over time.
Infant mortality rates varied between 1.8 and 8.3 per 1,000 live births. Deaths from diseases and morbid conditions accounted for 69% of all child deaths. Suicide was the leading or equal leading external cause of death in 5 jurisdictions.
A study has found that the risk of stillbirth can be passed down through generations, and that the odds of a couple losing a baby to stillbirth are higher when there is a family history from the father's side.
Research has shown that in the third trimester (after 28 weeks of pregnancy) going to sleep on your back increases your risk of stillbirth. As the link has now been shown in four separate research trials, our advice is to go to sleep on your side in the third trimester because it is safer for your baby.
How Many Babies Are Stillborn? Stillbirth affects about 1 in 175 births, and each year about 21,000 babies are stillborn in the United States. That is about the same as the number of babies that die during the first year of life.