Even before you could sigh in disbelief, truth to be told that India tremendously under reports stillbirth figures.
According to the sample registration survey in 2008, conducted by the registrar general’s office, the country recorded eight stillbirths per 1,000 births — a highly improbable figure considering India’s abysmally high maternal and child mortality rate.
The survey says, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh have the highest number of stillbirths – 15 per 1,000 births, followed by Orissa (13), Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra (11), Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh 10.
Delhi, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh jointly recorded seven stillbirths per 1,000 births.
Professor Rajesh Kumar, head of department of community medicine at PGI, Chandigarh, said, "It is easily three times more than what is recorded. India does not seriously record still birth rates with surveyors more interested in jotting down how many children died after being born. Stillbirth, however, is equally important. Around 50% of the deaths occur during the 6-8 hours of labour pain."
According to scientists, who have published a series of findings on stillbirth in the British medical journal "Lancet" on Wednesday, "by 2020, 90% of all stillbirths will occur in south Asia and so it’s important that India documents it more seriously."
Dr Monir Islam, WHO South-East Asia region’s director on family health, added, "stillbirth is still a taboo in India and not given enough importance. Affected mothers are often subjected to stigma in communities that blame her stillbirth on her own sins, evil spirits and destiny."
Dr Flavia Bustreo, WHO’s assistant director-general for family and community health, added, "Many stillbirths are invisible because they go unrecorded. Stillbirths need to be part of the maternal, newborn and child health agenda."
Experts say stillbirths remain invisible — neither counted in the Millennium Development Goals, nor tracked by the UN nor in the Global Burden of Disease metrics — even though at least 2.65 million stillbirths were estimated worldwide in 2008.
One of the main problems is that the International Classification of Diseases does not fully identify the stillborn baby as an individual death. In 90 countries, stillbirths are not counted in the national data.