Stillbirth: How Much More Do We Know?

In the U.S., 1 out of 200 pregnancies culminates in stillbirth. To characterize better the maternal characteristics that lead to this event, researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study of prepregnancy risk factors for antepartum stillbirth at ≥23 weeks' gestation (defined as no fetal signs of life before labor and Apgar scores of 0 at both 1 and 5 minutes after birth) that occurred at 10 institutions from 2002 to 2008. Analysis was repeated for term deliveries (37 to 42 weeks' gestation).

Of 174,809 singleton pregnancies analyzed, 712 ended in antepartum stillbirth. Mean gestational age at delivery was 31.9 weeks for stillbirths and 38.5 weeks for live births. Multivariable analysis showed that black or Latina race (adjusted odds rati…