How to Calculate Stillbirth Rates

Many women experience the common occurrence of stillbirth during pregnancy. Also known as miscarriage, stillbirth can result from a variety of issues including maternal or fetal disease or health problems. Issues like paternal age or race also may affect stillbirth risk for many women. Medically known as fetal demise, abnormal stillborn rates may point to national health problems. Therefore, calculation of stillbirths becomes important for the continued health of women, children, and others.

Things You'll Need

• Calculator

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Instructions

• 1

  Decide for what span of time you will calculate the stillborn rate. This can be any frame of time for which you can obtain birth and fetal death numbers. Decide for what population you want to conduct the stillborn rate. Again, this can be any population for which you can gather the required data. In the United States, find this data on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website at cdc.gov.

• 2

  Add the number of fetal deaths to the number of live births for the given population within the given time period.

• 3

  Divide the number of fetal deaths by the sum of the live birth and the fetal deaths. This is the stillborn rate for the population in the chosen time period.