Only 5 per cent of the 2.6million babies stillborn worldwide in 2009 had congenital abnormalities, and a third of stillbirths remain unexplained in the UK, although the poorly functioning NHS maternity care is thought to be a factor to the 600 deaths per year. An investigation in the West Midlands into 25 deaths of babies during labour found there was sub-standard care in all of them, and that 21 of those babies could have survived.

‘The grief of a stillborn is unlike any other form of grief,’ says Dr Richard Horton, editor in chief of Lancet. ‘Almost three million stillbirths happen worldwide every year, which, even for a country with a developed health system such as the UK, means 11 sets of parents every day will take home their newborn baby in a coffin.’

Tony Falconer president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, welcomed the reports, adding: ‘Although we have good information about social demographics of stillbirth, we need to know more about the pathology of stillbirth and more research in this area is needed.