2.3 Stillbirth and FGR (1/3) Copy

The association between FGR and stillbirth has been overlooked for a long time.

• Older classification systems such as that by Wigglesworth used in many reports tended to categorise most stillbirths as ‘unexplained’ ¹³
• Weight of stillbirths after delivery were assessed by pathologists using a standard which was derived from other stillbirths! ¹⁴
• In contrast, when plotting stillbirth weights on a fetal weight standard such as that of Hadlock derived from normal, term deliveries, many stillbirth weights were  below the lower centile limit. 
• An average 2 days are deducted from the gestational age of stillborn fetuses in the third trimester to adjust for the average ‘fetal death to delivery’ interval ^{14, 15}.

Furthermore, as the scatterplot shows, many stillbirths are also relatively small, without being SGA, i.e. more likely to fall between 10^th-50^th than 50^th-90^th centile.