By Professor John Robertson OBA
From Scottish pregnancy, births and neonatal data dashboard, published on 14th January 2025, you can see Scotland’s falling stillbirth trend with variation between 3 and 5 per 1 000 births around the ‘normal’ level of 4, from one quarter to the next. There is one quarterly figure of 5 per 1 000 in July-September 2021 but it is not repeated and is no more significant then the very low figure in the previous quarter. Scotland’s higher level of midwife and home visitor staffing must be credited as a major factor in this trend.
In the second graph, on deaths in the first four weeks of life, you can see a slightly higher rate in the last three years with one additional death per 1 000 before returning recently to around the ‘normal’ level. Worsening Tory austerity, hitting the poorest, often single, mothers, the hardest must be considered as an explanation. In July – September 2023, the rate increased, by less than 1.5 but, but this is not repeated. There are no statistically significant spikes.
Yet, BBC Scotland today, reporting on a single baby death suggest:
From this month, maternity units across Scotland will routinely face unannounced inspections by the NHS safety watchdog, Healthcare Improvement Scotland. It comes in response to a number of spikes in newborn deaths in recent years.
This is not true. There have been no ‘spikes’ and the quarterly variations were not repeated.
For context, Scotland has the lowest stillbirth rate in the UK. See:
Stillbirth rates per 1,000 total births in 2021 for the UK were 3.54 and varied between the devolved nations; 3.52 (England); 3.27 (Scotland); 3.88 (Wales); and 4.09 (Northern Ireland).
These little percentage differences mean thousands of lives.
Sources:
Support Scots Independent, Scotland’s oldest pro-independence newspaper and host of the OBA (Oliver Brown Award) at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/shop/
The Oliver Brown Award for advancing the cause of Scotland’s self respect, previously awarded to Dr Philippa Whitford, Alex Salmond and Sean Connery: https://scotsindependent.scot/?page_id=116
About Oliver Brown, the first Scottish National Party candidate to save his deposit in a Parliamentary election: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Brown_(Scottish_activis
From Scottish pregnancy, births and neonatal data dashboard
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
These graphs look ‘jaggy’ so, to the innumerate BBC hack the must be ‘spikes’.
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Awe jeez naw, not Claire MacAllister again… This was the December https://archive.ph/W5FHf effort with Lazy Winters,
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