Stillbirth

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Summary

If a woman loses a pregnancy after she's past her 20th week, it's called a stillbirth. Stillbirths are due to natural causes. They can happen before delivery or during delivery. Causes include:

• Problems with the placenta, the organ that transports oxygen and nutrients to the fetus
• Genetic problems with the fetus
• Fetal infections
• Other physical problems in the fetus

In at least half of all cases, it is not possible to tell why the baby died.

If stillbirth happens before delivery, your health care provider may induce labor or perform a Cesarean section to deliver the fetus. In some cases, you can wait until you go into labor yourself. This usually happens within two weeks of stillbirth.

Counseling may help you cope with your grief. Later, if you do decide to try again, work closely with your health care provider to lower the risks. Many women who have a stillbirth go on to have healthy babies.

NIH: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Start Here

• About Stillbirth (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• Dealing with Grief after the Death of Your Baby (March of Dimes Foundation)
• Pregnancy Loss (Department of Health and Human Services, Office on Women's Health) Also in Spanish
• Stillbirth (March of Dimes Foundation)
• Stillbirth (Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development) Also in Spanish

Diagnosis and Tests

• Karyotype Genetic Test (National Library of Medicine) Also in Spanish

Related Issues

• Other FAQs About Pregnancy Loss (Before 20 Weeks of Pregnancy) (Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development) Also in Spanish

Statistics and Research

• Data and Statistics on Stillbirth (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Clinical Trials

• ClinicalTrials.gov: Fetal Death (National Institutes of Health)
• ClinicalTrials.gov: Stillbirth (National Institutes of Health)

Journal Articles References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)

• Article: Support for parents and families after stillbirth and neonatal death.
• Article: Global, regional, and national stillbirths at 20 weeks' gestation or longer...
• Article: Impact of ambient heat exposure on pregnancy outcomes in low- and...
• Stillbirth -- see more articles

Find an Expert

• Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Also in Spanish
• How to Find Find an Ob-Gyn (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists)
• March of Dimes Foundation Also in Spanish

Patient Handouts

• When your baby is stillborn (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish