Research

Lancet Stillbirth Series 

On Wednesday April 13th/Thursday April 14th the Lancet Medical Journal launches its Series on Stillbirth. It will draw attention to the fact that 2.6 million babies are stillborn each year globally - that's around 7000 stillbirths a day.

The series includes six papers, eight commentaries and two supplementary research papers involving 69 authors across 18 countries. New Zealand is represented by Vicki Culling, a Board Member of ISA (International Stillbirth Alliance), which was very involved in this important event.

New Zealand features in the paper about high income countries and like our poor performance in other statistics, we are no different in stillbirth statistics. Those figures will be available tomorrow Wednesday 14th.

For more information about the Lancet Stillbirth Series, see

http://www.stillbirthalliance.org/doc/Overview.pdf

Media Release - Lancet (0.11MB) 
 

Research on stillbirth, newborn death and perinatal loss

One of Sands New Zealand's goals is to promote research into the causes and consequences of stillbirth, newborn death or other reproductive loss.

Through this page we want to let you know about research that is being undertaken both in New Zealand and internationally.

The Auckland Stillbirth Study (TASS)

The death of a baby before birth is a tragedy. For every 1000 babies born in New Zealand, eight will be stillborn. The Auckland Stillbirth Study, or TASS, is a three-year case control study that is exploring the causes risk factors of late stillbirth (those that occur in the third trimester) in Auckland. There is often no medical explanation for these deaths. As well examining known risk factors for stillbirth, it will also explore environmental and lifestyle factors that have not previously been investigated.

We started recruiting for the study in July 2006 and we finished recruiting in June 2009. A big thank you to all those who have agreed to take part in this study, with your help we hope to understand a little better why this tragic event occurs and reduce the chances of it happening in the future. The study is funded by Cure Kids www.curekids.org.nz and the Nurture Foundation www.nurture.org.nz

Study coordinator: Tomasina Stacey. Co-investigators: Associate Professor Lesley McCowan, Professor Ed Mitchell, Dr John Thompson, Dr Jane Zuccollo, Dr Alec Ekeroma 

For information about this study - contact Tomasina Stacey on 021-2971906 or by email t.stacey@auckland.ac.nz

International Stillbirth Research Alert

The Stillbirth Research Alert is a collaborative activity of the International Stillbirth Alliance (ISA) and the Australian and New Zealand Stillbirth Alliance (ANZSA). The aim of this alert is to provide plain language summaries of recent key papers on stillbirth.

www.stillbirthalliance.org/doc/ISA_Research_Alert_1.html