Maternal and fetal characteristics and causes of stillbirth in a tertiary care hospital of Nepal: secondary analysis of registry-based surveillance data

Abstract

Objectives: Stillbirth is one of the vital indicators of quality care. This study aimed to determine maternal-fetal characteristics and causes of stillbirth in Nepal.

Design: Secondary analysis of single-centred registry-based surveillance data.

Setting: The study was conducted at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Chitwan Medical College Teaching Hospital, a tertiary care hospital located in Bharatpur, Nepal.

Participants: All deliveries of intrauterine fetal death, at or beyond 22 weeks' period of gestation and/or birth weight of 500 g or more, conducted between 16 July 2017 and 15 July 2019 were included in the study.

Main outcome measures: The primary outcome measure of this study was stillbirth, and the secondary outcome measures were maternal and fetal characteristics and cause of stillbirth.

Results: Out of 5282 institutional deliveries conducted over 2 years, 79 (1.5%) were stillbirths, which gives the stillbirth rate of 15 per 1000 births. Of them, the majority (75; 94.9%) were vaginal delivery and only four (5.1%) were caesarean section (p<0.0001). The proportion of the macerated type of stillbirth was more than that of the fresh type (58.2% vs 41.8%; p=0.13). Only half of the mothers who experienced stillbirth had received antenatal care. While the cause of fetal death was unknown in one-third of cases (31.6%; 25/79), among likely causes, the most common was maternal hypertension (29.1%), followed by intrauterine infection (8.9%) and fetal malpresentation (7.6%). Four out of 79 stillbirths (5%) had a birth defect.

Conclusion: High rate of stillbirths in Nepal could be due to the lack of quality antenatal care. The country's health systems should be strengthened so that pregnancy-related risks such as maternal hypertension and infections are identified early on. Upgrading mothers' hygiene and health awareness is equally crucial in reducing fetal deaths in low-resource settings.

Keywords: fetal medicine; maternal medicine; perinatology; public health.