Nearly one million babies are stillborn in Africa every year. Behind every stillbirth is a mother, a family and a story left untold. Most of these are preventable, many unrecorded, and too often invisible. Each number hides a moment of heartbreak, and every uncounted loss represents a missed opportunity to learn and to act.
As a public health researcher specialising in maternal and newborn health, I have spent the past two decades working on strengthening health systems and quality of care across Africa. My research has focused on understanding how health systems can prevent stillbirths and provide respectful, people-centred care for women and newborns. Most recently, I was part of the team that led a new report called Improving Stillbirth Data Recording, Collection and Reporting in Africa. It is the first continent-wide assessment of how African countries record and use stillbirth data.
The study, conducted jointly by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the University of Cape Town, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the United Nations Children’s Fund, surveyed all 55 African Union member states between 2022 and 2024, with 33 countries responding.
