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Six babies are stillborn in Australia every day, leaving more than 2000 families bereaved each year.
Those statistics have been the same for two decades, and the rates are much higher in Indigenous communities.
Leading researchers hope to address the devastating public health issue with the launch of a new care standard at the National Stillbirth Forum in Brisbane on Friday.
The Stillbirth Clinical Care Standard, developed by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, aims to reduce the risks of stillbirth and break down the attached stigma.
It also encourages clinicians to speak openly to families about stillbirth and offer tests to understand why a death occurred.
"For the first time, this standard embeds stillbirth guidance into our maternity care that extends across the pregnancy journey," said Associate Professor Liz Marles, the commission's clinical director.
"This begins when a family is planning for a baby, continues through pregnancy and sadly, in instances where a baby dies before birth, can involve a search for reasons for the death."
The standard is a response to the federal government's National Stillbirth Action and Implementation Plan, which aims to reduce rates of stillbirths in late gestation, or after 28 weeks.
"Stillbirth is the most common form of perinatal death in Australia, accounting for seven in every 1000 births," Prof Marles said.
"Yet for many families, the experience of stillbirth remains hidden because of stigma and a culture of silence.
"The commission's national standard will be the catalyst for real change to reduce the risk of stillbirth and help ease the grief for bereaved women and families."
Cultural safety and healthcare equity is central to the standard, acknowledging stillbirth rates are higher among Indigenous women and those living in remote areas.
David Ellwood, a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at Griffith University, said research shows stillbirth could have been avoided in up to 30 per cent of cases.
"This highlights the value of investigating why stillbirths are happening, then examining the evidence to improve our health response," he said.
