Why counselling, support is needed for stillbirth mums

The loss of a baby due to stillbirth remains a sad ending of a pregnancy. An expectant mother hopes to have a healthy baby at the end of the pregnancy. However this is not always the case. It is estimated that globally, over 2.6 million stillbirths occur every year, a majority of these being from sub-Saharan Africa.

The World Health Organisation defines stillbirth as a foetal death after 28 weeks of pregnancy, or when a baby who has reached viable gestational age dies before birth. This is different from a miscarriage that is the loss of a foetus before reaching the age of viability. Most stillbirths occur before a woman goes into labour, and a smaller proportion happens during labour and or just before delivery.