MBRRACE-UK Perinatal Mortality Surveillance Report 2019

This is the fifth MBRRACE-UK Perinatal Mortality Surveillance Report and provides information on extended perinatal deaths in the UK and Crown Dependencies arising from births during 2017. The aims of the MNI-CORP are to collect, analyse and report national surveillance data and conduct national confidential enquiries in order to stimulate and evaluate improvements in health care for mothers and babies.

The availability of five years of data from across the UK (a cohort of just under four million births) and the improving quality of the data submitted to MBRRACE-UK has allowed an exploration of:

• time trends in stillbirth, neonatal, and extended perinatal mortality rates for the UK and each of the constituent countries;
• time trends in stillbirth, neonatal, and extended perinatal mortality rates by gestational age;
• improvements in data quality over time;
• time trends in reported CODAC classification of cause of death;
• time trends in the offer and consent for post-mortems for stillbirths and neonatal deaths.

The full report can be download by clicking here.

Kate Mulley, Director of Research, Education and Policy at Sands (stillbirth and neonatal death charity), said: “The Perinatal Mortality Review Tool’s (PMRT) first annual report represents a milestone in improving our understanding of why babies die in the UK. At its heart, it recognises the need for every parent to know as much as possible about what happened to their baby and why he or she died. The analysis of the PMRT’s first 1,500 cases, is published against the commitment to halve stillbirth and neonatal mortality by 2025.

“While MBRRACE-UK’s 2019 report shows a 12 per cent reduction in extended perinatal mortality from 2013 to 2017, it is still the case that one in every 150 baby dies before birth or within the first 4 weeks of life and more than 5,000 families are bereaved every year in the UK when a baby dies. To reach a halving of rates in the next 6 years will require renewed focus.

“Robust review provides that focus; the strong messages and clear action plans that emerge from it, have the power to change practice and prevent avoidable harm. The development of the PMRT represents a true collaboration of clinicians, policy makers, researchers, and parents who have worked tirelessly for many years to arrive at this point. Today, more families are being heard and more health professionals supported in understanding where lessons learned might save lives, than ever before.”

Staff Writer