Topping the wrong chart: India has highest number of stillbirths -Kiran Pandey

-Down to Earth

India recorded 0.34 million stillbirths in 2019; COVID-19 has disrupted health systems and added to the existing burden

Some 0.34 million of the 1.9 million stillbirths globally in 2019 were in India, making it the country with the largest such burden, according to the first joint estimates released by a number of United Nations agencies October 8, 2020.

India, along with five other countries — Pakistan, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, China and Ethiopia — accounted for nearly half of all stillbirths in the world, according to the report.

A stillbirth means a baby born with no signs of life at 28 weeks of pregnancy or more, according to UN agencies.

The country had made substantial progress in reducing the stillbirth rate over the past two decades. The rate had declined to 13.9 stillbirths per 1,000 births in 2019, from 29.6 in 2000 — a 53 per cent reduction. Globally, a 35 per cent reduction in stillbirth rate was recorded in this period.

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