Preventable baby deaths

Health services are a devolved policy responsibility. This briefing refers to the position in England only.

The baby loss charity, Sands, reports that every day, 13 families lose their baby before, during or shortly after birth. Research by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists found, of the preterm babies who died in 2016 and 2018, different care might have led to a different outcome for nearly three quarters of cases.

The 2019 NHS Long Term Plan included a goal to halve rates of stillbirths and neonatal mortality (deaths at age 0–27 days) by 2025. Achieving this ambition would mean reducing the stillbirth rate to 2.6 stillbirths per 1,000 births by 2025 (down from 5.1 stillbirths per 1,000 births in 2010). In 2022, the rate was 3.9 stillbirths per 1,000 births.

The neonatal mortality rate ambition in England is 1.0 deaths per 1,000 live births of babies born at 24 weeks or over (down from 2.0 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2010). In 2022, the rate was 1.5 deaths per 1,000 live births.

The current rates suggest that this ambition is not on track to be met.