The 1948 data are in respect of women who have had no previous live or stillbirth.
Stillbirth rates specific for age-parity combinations have been treated as if their relative values were constant and determined by biological factors.
They have not been considered separately because of lack of information about many of the stillbirths.
Possibly women who have had a stillbirth develop amnesia for some of the events associated with it.
The fetal risk is the second problem, consisting of stillbirth, prematurity, or recurrence of congenital heart disease in the fetus.
All these women reported that they had had an epidural, as did three others who had a stillbirth-for them the doctors reported pethidine.
Only one spontaneous stillbirth was identified, continuation of pregnancy to term being the rule.
For example, severe reduction in food intake in pregnant ewes reduced the birth weight of lambs by about one-third and greatly increased the stillbirth rate.
