Our staff is undertaking analysis for this metric. Please check back later.
Disclaimer / Limitations
This country’s legal measures were reviewed by our legal staff in consultation with in-country lawyers and/or CRVS legal experts. All efforts were made to ensure the accuracy of the legal analysis, however, if you consider there to be any discrepancies or if there have been changes in the law of the country since our staff last updated the legal analysis, we welcome any additional information or insights. Please contact us via this form.
Stillbirth Reporting
Zambia
Responsive Image
Zambia
Stillbirth Reporting
Reporting System
Reporting System
Compulsory Coverage
Is stillbirth registration available and compulsory for all stillbirths occurring within the country's jurisdiction?
Compulsory for all stillbirths
Recommended Practice based on International Guidelines
Tracking stillbirths and other fetal deaths is important for statistical and public health planning purposes. Official recognition that the fetal death occurred can have significance for families and can help to facilitate cremation and burial if the family desires. If stillbirths are recorded via the civil registration system, the law should require that all stillbirths that occur in the country are registered.
The Births and Deaths Registration Act mandates the Registrar-General to keep registers “of the birth of every child, whether born alive or still-born”.
Does the law mandate reporting of all stillbirths through the health sector?
Not mandated by law but recorded in practice
Recommended Practice based on International Guidelines
Tracking stillbirths and other fetal deaths is important for statistical and public health planning. If stillbirths are tracked through the health sector, the law (or guidelines and SOPs) should require the health sector to report fetal deaths to the central health ministry. For in-facility stillbirths, reporting responsibility should fall on the head of the health facility or attending medical professional. For community stillbirths, reporting responsibility is place on the birth attendant, who may be required to report the ministry of health directly, or may report through a local health facility.
Analysis of the legal instruments available to the reviewer did not identify any provision that makes stillbirth reporting mandatory, but stillbirth statistics are recorded through the health sector in practice.
Law Source
Informant
Who is the designated primary informant for declaring stillbirths to the civil registrar?
Mother
Recommended Practice based on International Guidelines
UN guidelines provide that, in priority order of preference, the informant for a fetal death is the same as for a live birth: first, the head of the health facility (for a fetal death that occurred in a health facility) or the birth attendant (for a fetal death that occurred outside a health facility with a birth attendant); second, the mother; third, the father; fourth the nearest relative of the mother; and fifth, any other adult person having knowledge of the facts.
Under Section 14(1) of the Births and Deaths Registration Act, the duty to report stillbirths is the same as for live births. The primary informants are the mother and (if the parents are married) the father. If the parents fail to give notice, the duty passes to any occupier of the house where the stillbirth occurred, the person in charge of the hospital or other institution where the stillbirth occurred, and each person present at the stillbirth. All of these persons have a duty to report if the parents fail to give notice; the duty does not apply in sequence.
In addition, under Section 15 of the Act, as elaborated by Rule 28 of the Births and Deaths Registration (General) Rules, any person who finds the exposed body of a stillbirth, any person taking charge of such a body and any person causing such a body to be buried all have a duty to give notice of the stillbirth to the relevant Registrar.
What is the role of the health sector in stillbirth registration?
Issuing of evidence of stillbirth
Recommended Practice based on International Guidelines
UN guidelines provide that the head of the health facility is the preferred informant for stillbirths. Where the stillbirths are registered via the civil registration system this should be specified in the law. As with live births, some countries require the health sector to notify information about stillbirths even where the designated informant is the mother and/or father. Where the mother and/or father is the primary informant, the health sector would usually be required under the law to provide a notice of some sort as evidence of the stillbirth for the purposes of registration.
Any person giving notice of a stillbirth must provide a written certificate stating that the child was not born alive, signed by a registered medical practitioner or certified midwife who was in attendance at the birth or who has examined the body of the child.
Alternatively, the person notifying the stillbirth can make a declaration stating that the child was not born alive, that no registered medical practitioner or certified midwife was present at the birth, and that it was not possible for a registered medical practitioner or certified midwife to examine the body of the child.
Recommended Practice based on International Guidelines
If fetal deaths are reported through the civil registration system, the health facility, birth attendant or other informant should report a fetal death to the registration office in the location where the fetal death occurred, or at any location where access is available to the registration system, if the system is sufficiently networked. Where registration is required at the place of residence of the mother, this may reduce the rates of registration.
What is the reporting period for stillbirth registrations specified under the law?
1 month
Recommended Practice based on International Guidelines
The time frame for reporting a fetal death is usually the same as that for a death. There should, however, be a procedure for late and delayed reporting pending a medical-legal decision if the fetal death status is unclear or disputed.
Does the civil register contain a separate register for stillbirths, distinct from birth and death registers?
Yes
Recommended Practice based on International Guidelines
Stillbirth should be registered in a separate fetal death (or stillbirth) register. UN guidelines indicate that stillbirths should not be registered in the birth register or the death register, as they do not establish a legal identity, retire a legal identity or affect civil status. Including stillbirths in those registers can also make it harder to disaggregate the data for statistical purposes. Instead it is recommended that a separate register of stillbirths is established. However, some countries with digital systems do include stillbirths in the register of births, with a a notation that the event is a stillbirth to allow for disaggregation.
Recommended Practice based on International Guidelines
No fee should be charged for the timely registration of a live birth, marriage, divorce, fetal death or death
To encourage registration, the legislation should clearly state that registration of a birth, fetal death and death within the time period prescribed by the law is free of charge.
