Making Every Baby Count

Annex 2b. Guidance for completing the Births and
Deaths Summary Form
Purpose of form: To assist a facility to document births and perinatal deaths.
Responsibility for completion: Once per month by the facility data clerk or statistics department.
Additionally, numbers generated on this form can be compared between months
to obtain trends. At every perinatal death review meeting/committee meeting, these data
can be reviewed to identify similarities in cases reviewed and overall trends. This may help
guide prioritization of actions or interventions recommended by the perinatal death review
committee/meeting.
Section 1: Identification
1.1: Write facility name here.
1.2: Write the month and year for which these data were collected.
1.3: Write the name of the district where the facility is located.
1.4: Births
Column 1: Total Births: Write the total number of births in each of the categories, including
both live and stillbirths (including any live births of neonates who later died).
Column 2: Stillbirths: Write the total number of stillbirths (SB) in each category, as defined
here:
• “Antepartum SB” is the death of a fetus before the onset of labour.
––
This can be determined by “macerated” appearance of the fetus upon delivery (i.e.
tissue degeneration, starting with skin changes), in combination with absence of
fetal heart sounds (fetal heart tones) on admission.
• Absence of fetal heart sounds on admission does not necessarily indicate an
antepartum stillbirth, if the mother was admitted with labour already in progress.
• Presence of fetal heart sounds on admission of a labouring woman does exclude
the possibility of an antepartum stillbirth.
• “Intrapartum SB” is the death of a fetus who was alive at the onset of labour but who
died before delivery.
––
This can be determined by the presence of fetal heart sounds (fetal heart tones) on
admission or prior to delivery, or by “fresh” appearance of a fetus upon delivery (i.e.
intact skin and fetus on delivery).
• “Unknown SB” is the category for those stillborn fetuses for whom it is not possible to
tell the timing of the death.
84 MAKING EVERY BABY COUNT: AUDIT AND REVIEW OF STILLBIRTHS AND NEONATAL DEATHS