According to an NHS-funded review published last year, babies fare worse in the UK than in comparable countries. In Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland there are 4.3 stillbirths or deaths within 28 days of birth for every 1,000 births; in the UK it is 5.92.  

‘The numbers are shocking,’ says Clea Harmer, chief executive at Sands, the stillbirth and neonatal death charity. ‘The death of a baby is profoundly painful for families and for a baby to reach labour at the end of pregnancy and yet to suffer harm that might have been avoided, is devastating.’ Continue reading