Data collection
We created a 12-item questionnaire covering demographic variables (3
items), local facilities and practice following IUFD (5 items), routine
post-mortem work-up (1 item) and obstetrical care after IUFD (3 items;Appendix S1 ). The questionnaire was sent out to all Austrian
secondary and tertiary referral hospitals with maternity units (n=75)
along with an invitation letter addressed to the departmental director
and a franked response envelope. Survey time was between January and
July 2019 and deadline was set after 2 months of receipt. Returned
questionnaires were extracted for all variables and answers were
transferred into an excel file sheet. Institutional epidemiological data
were retrieved from the Department of Clinical Epidemiology Tirol
Kliniken, Austria, and combined with our dataset. After data check for
integrity and consistency, the database was frozen and made anonymous
prior to final analysis.