by Claudia Boyd-Barrett posted in Pregnancy

Diagnostic testing is probably the last thing you?d want to think about following a stillbirth, but a new study suggests parents and doctors could gain valuable information from two tests in particular.
The grief following the loss of a baby can be overwhelming and, understandably, parents may not want to deal with diagnostic tests during such a sensitive time. However, getting tests done could be useful to help couples better understand what happened, and in some cases could help them avoid problems with subsequent pregnancies.
Researchers analyzed the effectiveness of several tests following 512 stillbirths at hospitals in 5 states between 2006 and 2008. Although the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends all these tests, the study found two tests were much more successful than the others at pinpointing what caused the baby?s death. These were:
1. Examining the placenta (identified a cause 65 percent of the time)
2. A fetal autopsy (identified a cause about 40 percent of the time)
Two other tests followed a distant second: Genetic testing (12 percent effective), and testing for antiphospholipid antibodies to see if the mom had an autoimmune disorder (11 percent effective).
 
Stillbirth ? the loss of a baby after 20 weeks of gestation - occurs in about 1 percent of pregnancies, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Causes can include poor fetal growth, disruption to the placent...