The US stillbirth rate dropped 2% last 12 months, in accordance with data printed Wednesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a hopeful enchancment after a turbulent few years.
But there have been nonetheless almost 20,000 fetal deaths in 2024, CDC information exhibits, greater than 5.4 for each 1,000 stay births and pregnancies with gestations longer than 20 weeks.
That rate is the bottom it’s been in many years, but the CDC doesn’t essentially contemplate it to be a report low.
Stillbirths have been typically trending down within the US: The rate fell from 7.5 for each 1,000 stay births and pregnancies with gestations longer than 20 weeks in 1990 down to five.7 in 2019. But the rate ticked up within the first 12 months of the Covid-19 pandemic and has fluctuated within the years since, and the decline in 2024 basically introduced the stillbirth rate again to the place it was in 2022.
According to the brand new CDC report, the decline within the stillbirth rate last 12 months was pushed by vital change in three states: Colorado, which had a 14% drop; Utah, which had a 16% drop, and Mississippi, which noticed a 21% drop in fetal mortality between 2023 and 2024.
Despite the lower, Mississippi nonetheless has the next stillbirth rate than every other state, at 7.8, but officers within the state are taking motion. Earlier this 12 months, Mississippi declared a public health emergency over the rising toddler mortality rate. The transfer creates alternatives to mobilize sources to deal with the problem, corresponding to investments to activate a standardized system for maternal and toddler care and remove maternity care deserts.
And regardless of the nationwide enchancment last 12 months, particularly in stillbirths throughout the third trimester, consultants say rather more work is wanted to proceed to carry the stillbirth rate down.
“Stillbirths affect just as many families as do infant deaths each year,” mentioned Ashley Stoneburner, director of utilized analysis and analytics with March of Dimes, a nonprofit centered on toddler and maternal well being.
“It’s a really large problem, and a lot of the risk factors that we see for infant mortality, especially very early infant deaths, are the same that we see for babies that are born still,” she mentioned.
In September, the US National Institutes of Health launched a five-year, $37 million Stillbirth Research Consortium to help efforts that scale back the danger of stillbirth.
Research suggests that a few quarter of stillbirths are preventable, but most — as much as 60% – “remain unexplained even after exclusion of common causes, such as congenital abnormalities, genetic factors, and obstetric complications,” NIH mentioned in a information launch in regards to the new consortium.
Other components that improve the danger for stillbirth embody medical circumstances amongst moms — corresponding to diabetes, hypertension, weight problems and substance use throughout being pregnant — in addition to excessive ranges of stress some environmental exposures together with excessive warmth and air pollution, Stoneburner says.
“There’s a lot of socioeconomic factors that increase the risk for stillbirth as well, and those are things like lack of access to health care or belonging to a certain ethnic minority groups,” she mentioned.
March of Dimes’ 2025 report card highlighted a worrisome decline within the share of pregnant ladies who’re receiving prenatal care of their first trimester and “persistent inequities and rising health risks.”
The new CDC report exhibits that stillbirth charges have been constantly highest amongst moms who’re Black and those that are Native Hawaiian or different Pacific Islander. Rates of about 10 fetal deaths for each 1,000 stay births and pregnancies with gestations longer than 20 weeks for these teams are twice as excessive as they’re amongst moms who’re Asian, White or Hispanic.