International progress on stillbirth reduction: Changes in Stillbirth Rates in Selected Low and Middle-Income Countries from 2000 to 2021

Abstract

In this paper, we attempted to determine if there were reductions in low and middle – income country stillbirth rates since 2000 - focusing on sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean. We used data made available by the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation and the World Health Organization as well as the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Global Network for Women's and Children's Health Research.. Overall, nearly every country evaluated had at least a small reduction in stillbirth rate from the year 2000 to 2021, but the reductions varied substantially between regions. Asia and Latin America/Caribbean had similar levels of reductions with a number of countries in each of those regions having rates in 2021 that were 40 % or more lower than those documented in 2000. No country in Africa documented a reduction in stillbirths of 40 % and many had stillbirth reductions of less than 15 %.