Stillbirth Rates in the US

In Reply We thank Dr Madar and colleagues for their interest in our Research Letter. As they note, our study found that the prospective fetal mortality rate rises sharply in the final weeks of pregnancy, with the highest prospective stillbirth risk arising after 39 weeks’ gestation.

Equally striking and clinically important is that many of these late stillbirths occur in pregnancies with no identified clinical risk factors. In their Letter, Madar and colleagues state that these findings “strengthen the rationale for elective induction at 39 weeks, as tested in the ARRIVE trial….”