Patna: Strengthening antenatal care, ensuring timely referral of high-risk pregnancies and improving care during childbirth are crucial to reducing stillbirths, health experts said at a regional workshop in Patna on Wednesday.The two-day workshop, jointly organised by the Union ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW), Bihar health department and Unicef, aims to strengthen stillbirth surveillance and review systems in public health facilities across the state. The programme focuses on improving the identification, reporting, classification and review of stillbirths and ensuring that findings are translated into corrective action at the grassroots level. Nearly 60 officials, programme managers, doctors, medical college faculty members and public health specialists participated in the workshop.A stillbirth is the loss of a baby in the womb during the later stages of pregnancy. Experts noted that stillbirths remain an under-recognised public health challenge in India, with gaps in reporting and review systems often making it difficult to identify preventable causes. In Bihar, where a large number of pregnancies and births take place every year, stronger surveillance mechanisms can help detect shortcomings in antenatal, referral and delivery services and improve the quality of maternal and newborn care.According to the Bihar govt’s Civil Registration System (CRS) Stillbirth Interactive Dashboard, a total of 94,759 stillbirths have been officially reported in the state between 2021 and 2026 so far. Of these, more than 52,000 were male stillbirths, while over 42,000 were female stillbirths. The year-wise data show that 8,045 stillbirths were reported in 2022, 11,159 in 2023 and 9,500 in 2024, before the number surged to 63,850 in 2025. In 2026, 1,659 stillbirths have been recorded so far. The figures highlight the scale of the stillbirth burden in Bihar and underscore the need for stronger surveillance and review mechanisms.Addressing the workshop, health department secretary Kumar Ravi stressed the need to understand preventable causes and strengthen efforts to reduce such deaths. He said the training would equip master trainers to build the capacity of health workers at district and community levels and improve stillbirth surveillance and review mechanisms. “The findings from these reviews should be used to improve care and prevent avoidable stillbirths,” he said.Ravi urged participants to take the learning back to their districts and ensure it reaches frontline health workers, including auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs) and accredited social health activists (ASHAs). Stronger surveillance, he added, would help the health system identify gaps in care and initiate timely corrective measures.Joining the workshop virtually, Dr Shobhana Gupta, deputy commissioner and in-charge of child health and RBSK at MoHFW, said stillbirth surveillance should go beyond counting cases and help understand the multiple factors contributing to such deaths. She emphasised that the review process should strengthen the health system rather than become an exercise in assigning blame.
