Every year in England, around 2,500 babies are stillborn and 1,800 die in their first month of life. Now, NHS England has launched an updated care bundle that could help save hundreds more babies' lives by building on guidance that has already contributed to a significant decline in stillbirths across the country.
The third version of 'Saving Babies' Lives: A Care Bundle for Reducing Perinatal Mortality (SBLCBv3)' provides NHS trusts with the latest evidence-based guidance to enhance baby safety. The updated bundle focuses on four critical areas: preventing premature births, monitoring babies' growth more effectively to spot those at risk, improving how healthcare teams respond to changes in a baby's movements, and ensuring thorough monitoring during labour and immediately after birth.
This initiative forms part of the Government's ambitious target to halve stillbirths, neonatal deaths, maternal deaths, and brain injuries that occur during or shortly after birth by 2025, compared to 2010 figures. The previous versions of this care bundle have already made a real difference, with England seeing substantial reductions in stillbirth rates since the guidance was first introduced.
However, NHS England recognises there's still more work to be done. The updated guidance aims to reduce variations in care quality between different hospitals—something that can unfortunately contribute to poorer outcomes for some families. All maternity units will need to review their current practices and ensure staff receive proper training on the new recommendations.
For expectant parents, this represents a renewed commitment to their safety and their baby's wellbeing. The care bundle is designed to ensure consistent, high-quality maternity care regardless of which hospital you attend. Whilst the statistics around baby loss remain concerning, the proven success of previous versions of this guidance in reducing stillbirths offers genuine hope that this latest update will save even more lives.