Researchers from The Kids Research Institute Australia say the Federal Government’s in-principle commitment to cover the cost of stillbirth autopsies is a positive step forward in addressing the nation’s stagnating rates.
Six babies are stillborn every day in Australia – rates that have remained relatively constant for the past two decades.
In a submission to a recent senate inquiry into stillbirth, The Kids researchers were among those who advocated for federally funded autopsies.
Dr Brad Farrant, who is co-leading The Kids’ work in this area, said the move could help researchers better understand the causes of stillbirth and reduce the risks.
“This has the potential to be one of the most important enablers of the research that is required to save lives and bring down the stillbirth rate,” said Dr Farrant.
The Federal Government has since agreed in-principle to add stillbirth autopsies to the Medicare Benefits Schedule, pending advice from the Medical Services Advisory Committee.
Research co-lead Dr Carrington Shepherd said some stillbirths were preventable, but data collection needed to be improved to gain a better understanding of why.
“There’s a real sense of fatalism that stillbirth is unavoidable, that it’s not preventable – and that’s not true,” Dr Shepherd said.
“However, we don’t fully understand how many deaths are avoidable, and this really hampers our work in this space.
“The data needs to be better. Placental dysfunction is one of the biggest risk factors for stillbirth, yet we don’t systematically collect data about it. We’d like to see more information collected through autopsy processes, linked to other administrative data and made available to researchers like us.”
The Kids Research Institute Australia, the University of South Australia and stillbirth charity Still Aware have formed a collaboration to ramp up research on the issue and increase public awareness.