Declare stillbirth a national health crisis and develop guidelines to advocate better screening.

Each year, nearly 26,000 babies are born stillbirth. Most of these babies are of a viable gestational age. Umbilical cord accidents account for 5-30% of all stillbirths, but because of lack of funding, accurate statistics vary greatly. Because of this, the cause and preventative measures are not fully understood. What we do know, however, is the number of stillbirths continue to increase each year in this country. We encourage the federal government to declare stillbirths a national health crisis, provide proper funding to study cord issues, create guidelines for OB doctors to implement additional screening for high risk pregnancies, and abandon the 39 week delivery policy that reduces preterm birth rates, but create the unintended consequences of increases stillbirths.