MBRRACE-UK has published their Perinatal Mortality Surveillance Report 2020.
It is encouraging to see that the rates of extended perinatal death (including stillbirth and neonatal death) in the UK has fallen by 20% since 2013 from 6.04 per 1,000 total births in 2013 to 4.85 per 1,000 total births in 2020, equivalent to approximately 820 fewer deaths in 2020.
The report highlights shocking disparities, reporting much higher rates of stillbirth and neonatal death in areas of high deprivation and for babies of Black African, Black Caribbean, Bangladeshi and Pakistani ethnicity compared to babies of white ethnicity.
For the first time, data were presented on infectious causes of stillbirth and neonatal death, which showed that group B Strep is the leading single infectious cause of extended perinatal death. It reported that the rate of stillbirth caused by GBS was 0.01 per 1,000 total births, and for neonatal death it was 0.01 per 1,000 live births.
“This is the first time that MBRRACE-UK has presented data on stillbirths and neonatal deaths caused by group B Strep. Now it’s clear that GBS is the leading single cause of extended perinatal deaths in the UK, we call on policy makers to develop strategies to reduce this usually preventable burden.” Jane Plumb MBE FRCOG FRSA
