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. 2025 Dec;18(1):2448895.
doi: 10.1080/16549716.2024.2448895. Epub 2025 Feb 3.

Term stillbirths in Eastern Uganda: a community-based prospective cohort study

Martin Chebet  1   2 , Peter Olupot-Olupot  3   4 , Andrew D Weeks  5 , Ingunn Marie S Engebretsen  2 , Noela Regina Akwi Okalany  2 , Francis Okello  2 , Thorkild Tylleskär  2 , Kathy Burgoine  6 , David Mukunya  1   3
Affiliations

Term stillbirths in Eastern Uganda: a community-based prospective cohort study

Martin Chebet et al. Glob Health Action. 2025 Dec.

Abstract

Background: Every year, 1.9 million stillbirths occur worldwide, of whom 1.5 million occur in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and Southeast Asia.

Objectives: This study aims to determine the incidence and risk factors and to describe underlying causes for term stillbirths in Eastern Uganda.

Methods: This was a cohort study of pregnant women enrolled at 34 weeks of gestation or more and followed to birth between January 2021 and January 2024. Enrolment and follow-up were done in the community by trained midwives. Using structured questionnaires, details of maternal health, pregnancy and birth were captured.

Results: We enrolled 6101 participants and analysed 5496 for incidence of term stillbirth and 5296 for risk factors. Of the participants, 4913/5296 (92.8%) were between 14 and 35 years, and 4456/5296 (84.1%) had a health facility birth. There were 101 term stillbirths (61 were intrapartum and 40 antepartum). The incidence of term stillbirth was 18.4 per 1000 births (95% CI 14.8 to 22.9). The most common underlying causes of stillbirth were prolonged or obstructed labour 32/101 (31.7%) and malaria 20/101 (19.8%). The factors associated with term stillbirths were caesarean birth (aRR 3.3; 95% CI 2.00 to 5.4), intimate partner violence (aRR 1.8; 95% CI 1.1 to 2.8) and maternal age above 35 years (aRR 2.2; 95% CI 1.2 to 3.9).

Conclusion: Eastern Uganda has a high rate of term stillbirths with more than half occurring during labour. Efforts are needed to improve the quality of birth care and to prevent intimate partner violence.

Keywords: Stillbirths; causes; risk factors; term.

Plain language summary

Main findings: Prolonged labour and malaria were the most common attributable causes of term stillbirths in Eastern Uganda, while intimate partner violence and advanced maternal age were the identified risk factors.Added knowledge: Since there are limited recent data on stillbirths that include children born at home in Uganda, these results, which are based on over 6000 births, contribute to a better understanding of the current incidence, the common attributable causes and the risk factors of stillbirths in Uganda.Global health impact for policy and action: These results underscore the need for public health interventions to improve labour care, prevent malaria in pregnancy and reduce intimate partner violence in order to reduce stillbirths in Uganda.

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Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Study profile.
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