Preventing Stillbirth

Around one in 130 pregnancies in Australia tragically ends in stillbirth. We are dedicated to developing a new blood test to eliminate this devastating loss.

In Australia, 1 in 130 pregnancies end in stillbirth. The psychosocial trauma to individuals, families and the clinicians providing care are profound and long-lived.

Mercy Perinatal is dedicated to developing a new blood test to save babies from stillbirth. We are searching for a biomarker of placental health as a stillbirth prevention test.

Why do stillbirths happen?

The placenta is the life support system for the fetus – it provides the growing baby with essential oxygen and nutrients. Many stillbirths can occur because the placenta is functioning poorly. Starved of oxygen, the baby becomes sick and may succumb.

The first sign of a failing placenta is impaired growth of the baby, also known as fetal growth restriction. If the nutritional demands of the baby outstrip the placental supply, the baby fails to gain the expected amount of weight. Fetal growth restriction arises when the unborn baby is underweight.

If the placenta continues to fail, there may be critically low levels of oxygen and this can result in stillbirth. While most growth restricted fetuses are born alive and well, they are at 10-fold increased risk of stillbirth compared to normally grown fetuses.

The clinical gap

Current clinical tools are surprisingly poor at identifying fetuses that are growth restricted, those affected by a poorly functioning placenta and those at high risk of stillbirth.

Hence, we urgently need better clinical tools to flag babies at risk when the placenta is failing.

What is Mercy Perinatal doing to combat stillbirth?

At Mercy Perinatal, we have been on a decade long endeavour to develop a stillbirth prevention blood test.

The aim is to develop a simple blood test that gives a report card on the health of the placenta.

The blood test we are developing could conclude the placenta is in good health and the risk of stillbirth is low. But the test might also flag pregnancies where the placenta is failing. Such at-risk babies could be taken out of harm’s way and safely birthed before stillbirth occurs.

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How far along the road are we?

Over the past decade, we have made big strides. We feel that we are well on the way to translating a new placental health blood test – one that could save babies from stillbirth.

In an exhaustive search for new blood biomarkers, we made a breakthrough discovery of a new biomarker of placental health called SPINT1. SPINT1 levels in the blood are low when placental function is poor and when there is severe fetal growth restriction. Levels are high if the placenta is in good health.

We have also made strong discoveries using a combination of ultrasound findings to identify fetuses that are at risk of stillbirth. Our reports have shown that a slowing of fetus growth across pregnancy (progressive reduction in size as measured by ultrasound) is associated with stillbirth. This means clinicians should be wary of a fetus that is measuring smaller and smaller with subsequent ultrasounds as pregnancy advances.

Alongside SPINT1, we are using sophisticated technologies to hunt for even better biomarkers of poor placental function. We are also researching ways to improve the diagnostic precision of ultrasound to identify vulnerable fetuses at risk of stillbirth.

Thanks to the strong support we have received from patients, research colleagues and funding sources, we will continue to find a path forward to reducing the terrible burden of stillbirth.

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