Introduction
Fetal death is defined as the delivery of a fetus showing no signs of life as indicated by the absence of breathing, heart beats, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movements of voluntary muscles.1It is divided in early (<22 weeks of gestation), intermediate (between 22 and 27 weeks of gestation) and late (> 28 weeks of gestation) depending on gestational age. Of these, early are designated as abortions whereas intermediate and late are known as stillbirths.1
Intrauterine fetal death (IUFD) at any time during pregnancy is devastating for the expecting couple as well as their families and it is at such times that issues like the cause of the death of the fetus and the fear of recurrence of such mishap in future pregnancies crop up. These are major concerns for the couples as well as care givers; hence the determination of cause and mechanism of death is important to facilitate counseling of parents, management of subsequent pregnancies and future interventions if possible. However majority of times these questions remains unanswered due to several underlying factor and hence counseling parents is often unsatisfactory.
Despite these limitations of ascertaining the precise cause it is important to identify etiological factors that might themselves contribute in IUD or can be indicative of other factors that can play a significant role in IUD. The causes include maternal, fetal, placental lesions, cord accidents and genetic causes that should be investigated as per ACOG guidelines as a part of postmortem investigation of intrauterine death.2In the present study we have analysed 100 cases of IUFD. Our primary objective was to calculate the importance of various investigations in systematic postmortem examination protocol. This will help the obstetrician in counselling parents for the utility of post-mortem excamination and thus better able to guide for future recurrence risk. Such protocol based evaluations are much needed in our country as India is listed as a country with highest number of still birth.