Promote the establishment of a "best practices" standard protocol for pregnancy management based upon the premise that all pregnancies should be treated as "high risk". Fetal monitoring shall include, in addition to fetal heartbeat measurement using Doppler, 1) an ultrasound examination and 2) non-stress testing at all visits. The frequency of OB visits shall be determined by the medical practitioner on a case by case basis according to the progress of each individual pregnancy."

Pregnancies are like steeplechase races wherein the horse and rider must safely cross high hurdles and obstacles placed in its path. From the starting gun to the finish line there's no telling which horse will stumble, which rider will fall. The same is true for pregnancies.

Not all women make it to the finish line. The record is 1 in every 115 births will be a still birth. Doesn't sound like bad odds unless you're the 1 in 115. What makes it even worse is that every woman is at risk of being the one.

We hear and read about "high-risk" pregnancies, which suggests to women there must be an offsetting "low-risk" pregnancy. Nothing could be further from the truth. Pregnancies are all "high-risk"; some are just higher risk than others.

Back to our horse race, every horse and rider is at risk of falling at any point along the course. Same too for pregnant women. When one considers the myriad of multiplications that build a baby from a few cells to start we begin to marvel that any pregnancy can have a fruitful outcome. But they do. And they don't.

If only we could place our bets after the roulette wheel has stopped spinning. Neither Las Vegas nor life permits us that opportunity. That's why we must treat every pregnancy as a high-risk pregnancy and develop a "best practices" pregnancy management protocol based upon this assumption. To assume the worst at the outset is to be prepared for the worst. So what's stopping us? Insurance companies!

Current protocols are based in large measure on what procedures and tests and what frequency of visits insurers will pay for. While it is true that OB's could offer women additional tests or increased frequency of testing at their expense such an offer would be tantamount to an admission that the present protocol is not adequate. So women continue to be faced with a "one-size-fits-all" protocol that treats all pregnancies alike, despite the fact that not even two pregnancies are alike.

FACT: Ultrasound can image umbilical cords. To discover for the first time in the delivery room that a baby is entangled in its cord raises the question, "What was the doctor looking at when he or she performed those ultrasound tests?" Some women tell us that their doctor claims umbilical cords cannot be imaged with ultrasound and that the outcome was unforeseeable! If we can have a "picture" of a baby in utero sucking its thumb, why is it we can't image umbilical cords? That's a no-brainer to figure out.

The two saddest words we hear stillbirth mothers utter are, "If only!"

"If only I knew this was possible." "If only someone told me stillbirths happen in this day and age." "My birthing class never mentioned it!" "I must have read every parenting magazine and never saw anything about stillbirth!" For all those who never heard about it, the National Stillbirth Society is here to tell the whole story. And lead not just stillbirth mothers but all mothers and fathers in a campaign to "Stamp out SADS".