The challenges of reducing risk factors for stillbirths.

摘要

In a meta-analysis in The Lancet, Vicki Flenady and colleagues confirm that risk of stillbirth increases with maternal overweight and obesity, smoking, high maternal age, and other factors. These researchers looked at 96 population-based studies. Maternal overweight and obesity was, from a population perspective, the highest ranking modifiable risk factor. For non-modifiable risk factors, primiparity was the highest ranking. Knowledge about these risk factors is not new. So, why have we failed to reduce stillbirth rates, and what can we do better in future?