Stillbirth Resources

Links to websites of groups that study or provide information about stillbirth.

General Information

MedlinePlus
This web resource, from the National Library of Medicine, provides a wealth of information and resources for consumers on many health topics, including stillbirth.
March of Dimes
This organization works to help mothers have full-term pregnancies and researches threats to infants' health, including pregnancy loss and stillbirth.
International Stillbirth Alliance
This organization promotes and supports research on stillbirth and works to develop methods to prevent stillbirth.
- Stillbirth: The Basics

Services, Resources, and Support

First Candle
This nonprofit organization comprises parents, caregivers, researchers, and government, business, and community service groups that are working together to advance infant health and survival. The Grieving Families page provides resources for families who are grieving from the loss of a baby, including a grief counseling phone line.
The Compassionate Friends
The Compassionate Friends is a support organization of and for families who have lost a child.
Share Pregnancy & Infant Loss Support, Inc.
This organization supports families who are grieving the loss of an infant or a pregnancy.
International Stillbirth Alliance
This organization promotes and supports research on stillbirth and works to develop methods to prevent stillbirth. The Resources page provides information about support services, memory-making, advocacy, and other resources for bereaved parents.
Breaking the Silence of Stillbirth
In this post on the New York Times' Motherlode blog, one mother tells her story of stillbirth and advocates more conversation about this common problem.
Stillbirths: Breaking the Silence of a Hidden Grief
This editorial in the medical journal The Lancet shares the stories of parents who have experienced the loss of a child through stillbirth and talks about the importance of bereavement support and prevention efforts. (Access to the article is free, but readers must create a login and password.)
Star Legacy Foundation
This organization supports stillbirth research and education and offers resources for parents who have lost a baby, as well as their family members and friends.

Please note: Links to organizations and information included on this page do not indicate endorsement from NICHD, NIH, or HHS.

NICHD Resources

Pregnancy and Perinatology Branch (PPB)
The PPB is the main source of NICHD extramural support for stillbirth research.

Global Network for Women's and Children's Health Research
The Global Network, a partnership between NICHD and outside organizations, is committed to improving maternal and infant health outcomes and building health research capacity in resource-poor settings. Network scientists test cost-effective, sustainable interventions for adverse maternal and child health outcomes such as stillbirth.
Prenatal Alcohol and SIDS and Stillbirth (PASS) Network
The PASS Network, supported by the PPB and two other NIH Institutes, conducts community-linked studies to investigate the role of prenatal alcohol exposure in the risk for SIDS and adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as stillbirth and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, and how they may be interrelated.
Stillbirth Collaborative Research Network (SCRN)
The SCRN, supported by the PPB, was established in 2003 to understand the causes of stillbirth, improve stillbirth reporting, and develop preventive interventions for the condition. In addition, the SCRN is leading to the standardization of reporting procedures and post-mortem examination protocols, which allow more accurate data on the topic.
Nulliparous Pregnancy Outcomes Study: Monitoring Mothers-to-be (nuMoM2b)
nuMoM2b aims to study the underlying causes of adverse pregnancy outcomes (preterm birth, preeclampsia, fetal growth abnormalities, and stillbirth) among a cohort of 10,000 women in their first pregnancy. This prospective observational study is expected to lead to a better understanding of how genetics, biomarkers, environmental exposures, and psychosocial factors interact to result in these adverse outcomes. The recruitment and ascertainment of outcomes of the final cohort was completed in September 2014. A substudy of nuMoM2b—co-funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute—is studying the effect of sleep disordered breathing during pregnancy and various sleep parameters, including sleep position, on these adverse pregnancy outcomes.
Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units (MFMU) Network
The PPB-supported MFMU is conducting a trial of women who are diagnosed with primary cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection early in pregnancy. Primary CMV infection is associated with stillbirth, placental damage, and poor fetal growth. This trial is studying whether treatment with hyperimmune CMV globulin versus placebo decreases CMV infection and consequences in the offspring.

Fertility and Infertility Branch (FIB)
The FI Branch supports basic, clinical, and translational research to alleviate human infertility, control fertility, and understand the processes of human reproduction.

Maternal and Pediatric Infectious Disease Branch (MPIDB)
The MPIDB supports and conducts research in the United States and around the world on the epidemiology, diagnosis, clinical manifestations, pathogenesis, transmission, treatment, and prevention of infectious diseases, especially HIV, in infants, children, youth, and women.

Division of Intramural Population Health Research (DIPHR)
DIPHR researchers design and conduct etiological and interventional studies on population health from pre-pregnancy through adulthood, taking a life course approach.

Additional Resources

Helping Babies Breathe
NICHD and outside partners lead this initiative to train skilled birth attendants around the world on basic newborn care techniques for the first minute after birth. An evaluation by the Global Network showed that this program's neonatal resuscitation training prevents deaths from neonatal asphyxia that would have otherwise been classified as stillbirths.
The Lancet series on stillbirths
The series highlights the rates and causes of stillbirth globally, explores cost-effective interventions to prevent stillbirths (as well as maternal and neonatal deaths), and sets key actions to halve stillbirth rates by 2020. Also included are comments from professional organizations and parent groups.
American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) Guidelines for Management of Stillbirth (131 KB)
This press release describes the ACOG's guidelines for providers' management of stillbirth. A link at the bottom leads to the guidelines, which are accessible to ACOG members only.
Stillbirth Classification—Developing an International Consensus for Research: Executive Summary of a National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Workshop
This article, published in Obstetrics and Gynecology, results from an NICHD-sponsored workshop to review the pathophysiology of conditions underlying stillbirth to define causes of death.
Maternal and Child Health Library at Georgetown University: Infant Mortality and Pregnancy Loss Knowledge Path
These recent, high-quality resources on infant mortality and pregnancy loss analyze data, report on research aimed at identifying causes and promising intervention strategies, and describe risk-reduction efforts as well as bereavement-support programs.
International Stillbirth Alliance (ISA)
This organization promotes and supports research on stillbirth and works to develop methods to prevent stillbirth. The Research page describes the research promoted and supported by the ISA.
World Health Organization (WHO): Stillbirth
This page presents data on national, regional, and worldwide estimates of stillbirth rates.
Pregnancy Loss and Infant Death Alliance (PLIDA)
PLIDA supports health care practitioners and parent-advocates in their efforts to improve care for families who experience a miscarriage, stillbirth, or death of an infant.