ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION In the past few years, some of the most important risk factors for stillbirth (SB) (1-3) have changed the epidemiology of the most relevant cause of perinatal death. In western countries maternal age at first delivery has progressively increased in the past 10 years, reaching in Italy the mean value of 30.8 in 2004 (4); overweight and obesity have become more prevalent raising from 10.3% and 1.1% in 1994 to 12% and 1.2% in 2000, respectively; instead, smoking has remained stable in the past 25 years affecting approximately 17% of women in childbearing age.(5, 6)
In this chapter, we will review the most important risk factor for SB and the respective interventions to reduce their impact.
