ArticleBMC pregnancy and childbirth2018
Underreporting of stillbirths in Pakistan: perspectives of the parents, community and healthcare providers.
Article in BMC pregnancy and childbirth, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 48 citations in OpenAlex.
- Community-level interventions for pre-eclampsia (CLIP) in Mozambique: A cluster randomised controlled trial.Pregnancy hypertension · 2020Trial
- Understanding stillbirths and maternal deaths in Pakistan: evidence from a national household survey.Journal of global health · 2026Article
- Compartment-specific soluble immune profiles associated with preterm birth, perinatal death, and low birthweight in pregnant individuals living with HIV.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Identifying delays impacting maternal and perinatal deaths using a facility-based death audit review system integrated with community engagement: a mixed methods study.Journal of global health · 2026Article
- Prevalence and risk factors of stillbirths among pregnant women from twelve high-volume birthing facilities of Karachi, Pakistan: a longitudinal cohort study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2025Article
- Predictors of pregnancy loss among urban and rural women aged 15 to 49 years in Pakistan.BMC public health · 2025Article
- The moderating roles of social support and spirituality in the relationship between complicated grief and quality of life among women who have experienced pregnancy loss.Health psychology report · 2025Article
- Review
- Translating lessons to reinforce national stillbirth response; multi-stakeholder perspectives regarding priorities and opportunities to deliver quality evidence-based interventions within a limited-resource context in Uganda.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- Travelling numbers and broken loops: A qualitative systematic review on collecting and reporting maternal and neonatal health data in low-and lower-middle income countries.SSM - population health · 2024Review
- Trends and geospatial distribution of stillbirths in Uganda, 2014-2020.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2024Article
- Determinants of stillbirth among mothers who gave birth at Bishoftu General Hospital, Ethiopia: using a Bayesian logistic regression model.Frontiers in global women's health · 2024Article
- Completeness and Factors Affecting Community Workers' Reporting of Births and Deaths in the Countrywide Mortality Surveillance for Action in Mozambique.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2023Article
- Article
- Trends and risk factors of stillbirth among women of reproductive age in Pakistan: A multivariate decomposition analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Socioeconomic inequalities in stillbirth and neonatal mortality rates: evidence on Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups in eastern India.International journal for equity in health · 2022Article
- Article
- Open fire exposure increases the risk of pregnancy loss in South Asia.Nature communications · 2021Article
- Barriers and enablers to reporting pregnancy and adverse pregnancy outcomes in population-based surveys: EN-INDEPTH study.Population health metrics · 2021Article
- Predictors of stillbirth among women who had given birth in Southern Ethiopia, 2020: A case-control study.PloS one · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPakistan has the highest rate of stillbirths globally. Not much attention has been given so far to exploring the sociocultural factors hindering the reportage of stillbirths and the causes of death. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the perspectives of parents, communities and healthcare providers regarding the sociocultural practices and health system-related factors contributing to stillbirths and their underreporting.
methodsThis study used a qualitative approach including in-depth interviews and 14 focus group discussions to collect data from four districts of Pakistan. We conducted 285 in-depth interviews and 14 focus group discussions with health professionals - mainly active in the areas of maternal and child health - and parents who had experienced stillbirth. Constant comparative method and analytical induction method were performed to analyze the data.
resultsThe results of this study show that stillbirth is frequently misclassified and, therefore, an underreported phenomenon in Pakistan. It is an outcome of sociocultural practices, such as the social meaning of stillbirth and their understanding about the conflict between cultural and medical anatomy. In addition to grief and psychological distress, it endangers the maternal identity and worth in society in contrast to the mothers of live-born children.
conclusionThe misclassification of stillbirth, especially by healthcare providers, is a significant impediment to designing preventive strategies for stillbirth. We recommend that the reporting system for stillbirth should be aligned with the WHO definition of stillbirth to avoid its underreporting. Reporting procedures at a more administrative level need to be made uniform and simplified.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.