Britain trails the world in improving its stillbirth rate, and fatalism about baby deaths is still widespread among health professionals, a major global study has found.
Progress on reducing stillbirths is slower than in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Britain’s annual improvement rate is 1.4 per cent. In the Netherlands, where progress has been fastest, there has been an average annual reduction of 6.8 per cent.
Almost three in every 1,000 babies in this country are born dead. A standardised international measure puts Britain 21st in the world, slipping from 18th place in 2000.
Britain is behind Slovakia; the stillbirth rate here is double that of Iceland, the best performing country.
The Times has repeatedly highlighted NHS complacency over the thousands of babies