A group of bereaved parents have come together to call for urgent national action on Australia’s failure to reduce stillbirth rates.
The parents have launched a video called Louder Together alongside a petition demanding federally funded stillbirth awareness and prevention.
Kristy-Lea Brown (pictured above) is one of the parents involved with the campaign. In 2021, she went into early labor and expected to be days away from bringing her baby boy, Parker home. Instead, she was informed his heart had stopped. Parker was born silent in November that year.
“Our son Parker was born on the 5th of November 2021, after visiting the hospital in early labour to discover after a blissfully uneventful pregnancy that his heart had stopped,” she says.
“We were whisked into the heartache and whiplash of grief when we expected to be days away from bringing our baby boy home. We were ready, the house was ready and I was full term patiently waiting to start our life as a family of 3.”
Kristy-Lea says more needs to be done to raise awareness and drive change when it comes to the stillbirth rate in Australia, home to one of the safest maternity systems in the world.
“It astounds me with the current rate of medical advancements in the same time frame that the rate of stillbirth hasn’t changed in 20+ years,” she says.
“This number needs to be lower, because no one should feel the heartbreak of saying goodbye to a child.”
The petition comes ahead of October, which is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month.
Each year, 2000 Australian babies are stillborn, an issue affecting six families every day.
The rate of stillbirth has not changed in over 20 years. Econimially, the direct and indirect cost of stillbirth in Australia has been estimated to be $681.4 million over a five-year period.
The parents involved with the petition are calling for measures like consistent education, improved antenatal monitoring and public awareness campaigns.
“I reached out to other bereaved parents out of sheer frustration and heartbreak at how few had signed the petition,” said Ash Sorensen.
“The idea came on Friday and within two days we had 30 videos. Michelle and Tim have been fighting for this for so long – the least we can do is throw our support behind them. Hundreds of thousands have been impacted, yet only 1,000 have signed. The gap shows how invisible this issue is, how urgently awareness is needed.”
Tim McCranor, Co-Founder of Stillrunning, said federal funding is needed.
“The knowledge exists. The passion is there. What’s missing is scale – and that requires federal funding. We’re calling on the government to fund a unified, national campaign.
“Not postcode by postcode. Not state by state. Australia needs a coordinated effort to save lives.”
The federal government has approved the ePetition for a national Stillbirth Awareness Campaign. It is open until 19 September 2025.
Feature image: Kristy-Lea Brown with Parker.