Still birth is an ill understood situation but one which causes the most distress to both the parents and the obstetricians. More and more are we trying to understand the causes of still brith and one of the ways to elucidate the potential cause is to conduct an autopsy on the fetus. This continues to be a neglected examination because of the reluctance of the parents to allow open examination of the fetus and the lack of expertise in having trained and focussed perinatal pathologist.
We were very fortunate to have Dr Sunil Jaiman a trained perinatal pathologist from Fernandez Hospital, Hyderabad with us who enlightened us on the depth and extent of information that can be ascertained from a properly conducted autopsy.
The problems that arise in this field in achieving this end was discussed in an interactive session with experts and active participation by the audience.