Our numbers of still births has fallen by more than a half after a lot of hard work by our maternity teams.  

In 2015, NHS England set up Saving Babies Lives pilot sites  and we were accepted on to it in recognition of our commitment to this area of care for mums and their families.

We set up a Maternity Stillbirth Reduction Group which examined all areas which could lead to a reduction in the numbers of still births including both clinical and non-clinical areas.

And the results are now showing we have more than halved the numbers of still births.  In 2011/12 out of 5966 births we had 31 stillbirths. Last year we had 13* out of 5489 births. That’s a percentage drop from 0.52% to 0.24%.

Head of Midwifery Anne-Marie Henshaw, said: “  This work is so important, so to see the hard work reflected in this way is a real achievement for everyone involved.  It will continue so we are delivering better maternity care for our mums and their families.”  

The work focussed on several key themes including more training for midwives in scanning, measuring growth and fetal heart monitoring. There was also work on  better data, audit and communications and we have been supporting public health messages on healthier pregnancies  including the risks of smoking and information for older mums.

** this includes an adjustment to exclude lethal abnormalities.