1 / 7Almost two million babies are stillborn every year – one every 16 seconds – the United Nations said Thursday, warning that the COVID-19 pandemic could add another 200,000 deaths to a toll is described as devastating.2 / 7Some 84 percent of stillbirths, take place in low- and middle-income countries, as a result of a lack of midwives and poor quality healthcare, UNICEF, the World Health Organization and the World Bank Group said in a joint report. Improvements in basic antenatal care could save hundreds of thousands of lives each year, they added.3 / 7“Losing a child at birth or during pregnancy is a devastating tragedy for a family, one that is often endured quietly, yet all too frequently, around the world,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore.4 / 7“Beyond the loss of life, the psychological and financial costs for women, families and societies are severe and long-lasting. For many of these mothers, it simply didn’t have to be this way.”5 / 7In 2019, three-quarters of stillbirths – defined in the report as a baby born with no signs of life at 28 weeks of pregnancy or more – occurred in sub-Saharan Africa or Southern Asia.6 / 7The report warned that the COVID-19 pandemic could result in nearly 200,000 additional stillbirths, assuming that 50 percent of health services in low- and middle-income countries are affected by the COVID-19 response.7 / 7Mark Hereward, UNICEF’s associate director for data and analytics, told the AFP news agency that infants in many countries would suffer from COVID-19 even if their mothers never contracted the disease. Approximately half of the stillbirths in sub-Saharan Africa and Central and Southern Asia occur during labour, compared with only 6 percent in Europe, Northern America, Australia and New Zealand, the UN said.