Today The Lancet journal released a five-paper series on Ending Preventable Stillbirths, presenting a renewed call to action on stillbirths for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) era. More than 200 authors, investigators and advisors report that 2.6 million stillbirths occur annually, 75 percent of them in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Nearly half occur during labor and delivery, and most are preventable. Women’s and children’s health programs offer invaluable opportunities to prevent stillbirths and achieve the SDG for maternal, neonatal, and child survival.

At the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), our efforts to end preventable child and maternal deaths encompass the same interventions that help prevent stillbirths – interventions such as improved access to family planning, high-quality antenatal care, and facility deliveries with skilled birth attendants on hand.

Through these interventions and others, USAID works to end preventable tragedies, be they stillbirths or the death of a mother, newborn, or child. Together with our partners, we work to end preventable child and maternal deaths within a generation.

Learn more

• Read the Lancet series, authored in part by USAID’s Deputy Child and Maternal Survival Coordinator Katie Taylor and Senior Newborn Health Advisor Donna Vivio.
• Read “USAID Delivers,” the Impact blog by USAID Deputy Child and Maternal Survival Coordinator Katie Taylor on how USAID’s maternal and child health efforts help prevent stillbirths.
• Check out USAID’s Maternal and Child Health programs and our Maternal Health Vision for Action.
• Read USAID’s 2015 Acting on the Call Report, formulating a roadmap to reach 38 million women with improved health services by 2020.
• View the Every Newborn Action Plan [8.2MB], a roadmap to end preventable newborn deaths, supported in part by USAID.
• Browse the photo galleries of USAID’s efforts to promote maternal and newborn health.