I have to wonder when my friends will tire of getting doom and gloom emails in their inbox. Am I now going to their junk mail folders?
I sent an email to over 50 friends and former coworkers (and posted on FaceBook) that live in, oh a dozen states and about as many countries. This email was really about Stillbirth Awareness, and I also asked them to light a candle on October 15th.
Here is the info I included in the email:
Approximately 1 in every 115 pregnancies (or '1 in 100' or '1 in 150' or '1 in 200') ends in Stillbirth in the US each year. This is a seemingly random occurrence, with far too little data and attention paid to it. Of those 115 stillbirths, 40% of the stillbirths that occur in otherwise healthy pregnancies remain unexplained after physical examination of the mother and the placenta and an autopsy of the baby. See below to see why the rate is not known.
The rate of stillbirths in the US is higher than that of SIDS (~5%), higher than the infant mortality rate (~7% death after a live birth) and similar to that of premature birth (~13%). One reason that the SIDS rate has dropped over the last decade is due to research into ways to prevent SIDS and to an intensive awareness campaign aimed at educating expecting and new parents (the Back to Sleep Campaign). Perhaps the same attention should now be paid to the causes of stillbirths in otherwise healthy pregnancies and to educating expectant mothers on how to protect their child during the final weeks of pregnancy.
There is currently a bill in the House of Representatives that will substantially aid in the study of the causes of stillbirth. HR 5979 aims to standardize the post mortum protocol and reporting of the stillbirth and any determined causes at the Federal level. This will improve the data that is collected and provide a framework for epidemiological studies. Please view this bill at Washington Watch (http://www.washingtonwatch.com/bills/show/110_HR_5979.html) and write to your Representative (there is a link on the right of that page) to ask them to support this bill. Please do this close to October 15th so that a large enough volume of mail comes into their office and gets noticed.
Organizations such as the March of Dimes fund research and provide education in ways to prevent birth defects and premature births. Funding for stillbirth research and prevention is not at the same rate. In fact, the March of Dimes database does not include the rate of stillbirths within the US. If you give to such organizations, please consider asking them to divert more resources to the area of stillbirth prevention. Losing a baby one week before his or her due date is no less painful than losing a baby one week after his or her birth.
In addition, if you or someone you know is pregnant, please read and share these pages:
http://babykickalliance.org/stillbirth.asp and
http://www.americanpregnancy.org/duringpregnancy/kickcounts.htm.
Kick Counts were not mentioned to me by my doctor nor were they covered or emphasized in the prenatal books that I read. There is currently a push by some doctors for greater monitoring of baby kicks, but an inconclusive study about the benefits of kick counts a few years ago has led many doctors to ignore this free and easy way to monitor fetal health. It is completely non-invasive and may help a family avoid the tragic outcome of a baby's death in the womb.
After a safe delivery, www.savebabies.org recommends screening for 95 newborn diseases, which are not screened for in most states.
If you would like to know more about stillbirth and how to support those in mourning, please visit the
MISS Foundation at www.missfoundation.org:
http://www.missfoundation.org/babysbreath/index.html and the
National Stillbirth Society at http://www.stillnomore.org/main.htm .
October is more famously known as "Breast Cancer Awareness" month. My doctor has recently recommending a preventative measure to me which is similar to the one outlined here: http://www.breasthealthproject.com/
I hope the email is shared with their friends who are still facing the unknown road through reproduction. I can only hope that a baby is saved from all that I have learned since Serenity died.
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I also invited a few close friends to read my blog. EEEEKKKK! They better freakin say "hi". :)
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