Stillborn

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) definition, stillborn is the term for a newborn with a birth weight of at least 500 g or, if the birth weight is not available, a newborn born dead after a pregnancy lasting 22 weeks or more. The WHO definition has been in use since 1987.

The Population Register Centre does not collect data on stillbirths. These data are obtained from stillbirth certificates written out by physicians. The health care unit or the physician in question forwards the certificate to the Provincial State Office which sends it to Statistics Finland (Decrees 948/73 and 99/98).

In the vital statistics the number of stillbirths differs somewhat from the number of stillbirths in the cause of death statistics. There are two reasons for this difference. Firstly, the vital statistics use the above-mentioned WHO's definition of stillbirths, for which the weight of a new-born is the primary factor in the definition of stillbirths. In the cause of death statistics, that factor is the number of weeks of pregnancy. Secondly, the deadline for data on stillbirths is shorter for the vital statistics than for the cause of death statistics.

Stillbirths include a fetus or a newborn who shows no signs of life at the time of birth after a pregnancy lasting at least 22 weeks or the newborn weighs at least 500 grams. Miscarriages that occurred at an earlier stage of the pregnancy are not regarded as stillbirths and are not included in cause of death statistics.