Prevalence of stillbirths and their associated risk factors at Ain Shams University Maternity Hospital in the period from 2008 to 2012

Abstract

Stillbirth is an important medical problem of public health concern; its rate indicates the sanitary development of society. Stillbirth remains an event that has an important impact on global health issues. Different levels of health care between countries suggest that the stillbirth rate may be one of the indicators of the quality of a country's medical system. Mortality rates in the perinatal period are used to evaluate the outcome of pregnancy and monitor the quality of perinatal (prenatal and neonatal) care.The use of standard terminology facilitates comparisons of mortality rates among states and countries. Standard definitions for reporting reproductive health statistics are published by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). In the United States, the perinatal mortality rate (PMR) declined to 6.7 per 1000 live births plus late fetal deaths in 2003, and has remained stable through 2005. Neonatal mortality rates are higher in infants who are non-Hispanic black infants, premature, at or greater than 40 weeks 3 days gestation, or a product of a multi-fetal pregnancy.