“People seem to avoid me since I lost my son, as if I have a contagious disease.”
This was a response from an Australian mother who experienced a stillbirth, and contained in a recent from PricewaterhouseCoopers.
It underscores the stigma that still surrounds stillbirth, one of which occurs, on average, every four hours in Australia.
And according to recent figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics almost two-thirds of them aren’t attributed a cause.
With more than 2,000 children stillborn every year, it is simply not good enough that in a prosperous, developed country like ours we still don’t know the cause of the majority of stillbirths.
The deep emotional shock and the obvious sadness of losing a child can be crippling, but it is exacerbated by a lack of institutional support structures and basic understanding of what it is and how it happens.
What many people don’t appreciate is that it is a preventable killer that we should be trying to research and educate out of existence.
With more than 2,000 children stillborn every year, it is simply not good enough that in a prosperous, developed country like ours we still don’t know the cause of the majority of stillbirths.
Coupled with this is the fact that almost no government funding is directed to stillbirth research and awareness campaigns, making a grim situation worse.
And in developing countries, the situation can be even more dire, as Datelines’ recent piece, exposed.
"The stigma surrounding stillbirth is real, it is extremely harmful and it happens everywhere."
In the case of El Salvador, archaic laws actively punish women who have the tragic misfortune of experiencing stillbirth.
How anyone can be charged with manslaughter or homicide after experiencing stillbirth is beyond comprehension, and exposes a fundamentally twisted understanding of what is an all too common and under-researched maternal health issue.
And this is the major issue: a lack of understanding.
Whilst the response we see in El Salvador is extreme and thankfully rare, it highlights a fundamental issue of misunderstanding.
Obviously that manifests itself in different ways in different contexts and countries, but the stigma surrounding stillbirth is real, it is extremely harmful and it happens everywhere.
The fact that Australian mothers, such as the one quoted above, experience such a damaging social response to their loss should be of concern to all Australians.
"One-third of stillbirths can be prevented through relatively simple measures."
And this is what needs to be addressed in order to improve the maternal outcomes for mothers everywhere, and improve societal attitudes to the issue.
According to the limited research that has been conducted, one-third of stillbirths can be prevented through relatively simple measures, such as a mother to be sleeping on her left side, eating and drinking the right things, and going straight to hospital if there are significant changes in her baby’s movements.
With the right support we can improve these preventative measures and ensure more families do not have to go through the harrowing experience of stillbirth.
El Salvador’s treatment of these women is an extreme and shocking consequence of a fundamental lack of understanding, which is an issue that exists throughout the world, including Australia.
But if we can encourage governments and corporate Australia to invest in further research into stillbirth, we can improve understanding, address these social issues and work on preventative measures.
Measures that will be of benefit not only in Australia but globally.
