By Kate Greenwood
Cross-Posted at Health Reform Watch
As I have blogged about before, including in this post from 2010, and this one from 2009, about 1 in every 160 deliveries in this country ends in a stillbirth, and all too frequently no one can say why. An article by Robert Goldenberg and colleagues in this month’s issue of the American Journal of Perinatology suggests that the knowledge gap is likely to persist.
As Goldenberg explains, the three tests that provide the most information about what caused a stillbirth are (1) an autopsy, (2) an examination of the placenta, fetal membranes, and umbilical cord, and (3) a karyotype (a test for chromosome abnormality). Of the members of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists who responded to a 2011 survey, however, 23.3 reported that they infrequently ordered an autopsy when a stillbirth occurred (0.4 percent reported that they never did) and 24.8 percent reported that they infrequently ordered a karyotype (0.3 percent reported that they never did). These results comport with the findings of a qualitative study published in 2012 in BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth. The authors, Maureen Kelley and Susan Trinidad, reported that obstetrician-gynecologists in two focus groups “would not routinely offer an autopsy to the parents, but would conduct one if requested. Some would offer/order lab work on the placenta if the cause of the stillbirth were not known.”
A surprisingly high 30.2 percent of the doctors who responded to Goldenberg’s survey indicated that they frequently, but do not always, review the results of post-stillbirth testing; an additional 11.9 percent admitted that they infrequently review such results. The survey also revealed that “the large majority of stillbirth certificates are filled out prior to the return of all test results”, some “by providers other than the physician”, “making it “highly likely that that the vital statistic cause of death reports are inaccurate.”
As Goldenberg notes, there is, as with many surveys, the possibility of a response bias, since obstetricians who were interested in stillbirth were more likely to respond. In practice, the percentage of physicians who do not order the appropriate tests may be even higher than the survey revealed. The failure to order the appropriate tests and then interpret and report their results has obvious public health implications. Goldenberg explains that, despite advances, “the U.S. stillbirth rate is among the highest in developed countries, substantial disparities remain in stillbirth rates between various populations of U.S. pregnant women, and about one-third of stillbirths may be preventable.” Further study is needed and better data is a necessary first step.
Failing to order the appropriate tests can also harm individual grieving families. Soo Downe and colleagues conducted a qualitative interview study, published earlier this year in BMJ Open, and found that while “[f]ifteen [of the twenty-five parents interviewed] expressed a strong drive to find out why their baby died”, just ten had had an autopsy. These parents “emphasized the importance of discussions and accurate information about maternal and child blood tests, placental investigations, postmortem examination and any other tests that could be conducted.”
To improve stillbirth-related knowledge and practice among obstetricians, Goldenberg recommends addressing the relevant issues during residency, in continuing medical education programs, and in grand rounds. Learning how best to manage a relatively rare occurrence like stillbirth is likely to continue to fall low on the list of priorities of busy physicians with competing obligations, though. More promising, I think, is Goldenberg’s recommendation that hospitals help by, among other things, developing protocols and standardized order sheets. Goldenberg’s survey showed that “only about half the hospitals had written guidelines for evaluation and management of a stillbirth, and only 25% of the respondents had preprinted orders at their hospital for stillbirth tests.” Remedying this would help physicians and patients navigating an exquisitely difficult time; it could also go a long way to improving the current quality and quantity problems with stillbirth data.
*I thank Catherine Finizio, the Administrator of Seton Hall Law’s Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law & Policy, for keeping me focused on this important issue. (My prior posts are here, here, here, and here). Cathy’s grandson, Colin Joseph Mahoney, was stillborn at 39 weeks gestation on November 10, 2008.