The International Stillbirth Alliance (ISA) was founded in 2003 by three US-based bereaved mothers. They intentionally founded it as a global organization, recognizing that no country was paying sufficient attention to stillbirth, nor providing adequate support for bereaved parents and families.
Since then, the Lancet Series on stillbirth from 2011 and 2016 have highlighted the issue of stillbirth and offer a roadmap for eliminating, by 2030, one of the most neglected tragedies in global health today. However, we continue to face enormous barriers to realizing these intentions. ISA is now working with partners to develop a third Lancet Series, to be published in 2028.
ISA aims to help bridge the gaps in addressing stillbirth and early newborn death within the continuum of maternal and newborn health through collaborations for continued research, education, advocacy, and training on global care standards with a variety of stakeholders and partners. As of mid-2026, we have over 250 members, including 59 organizations and almost 200 individual members, all striving to attain the same goal: ending preventable stillbirths and newborn deaths. ISA does not provide services to individuals; we are working with member organizations (which provide these services) to connect people locally and globally so they can learn from one another and thereby improve standards of care within their region.
ISA is a not-for-profit organization recognized in the US as tax-exempt under Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3).
Read ISA’s Strategic Plan for 2021-2025 – we are currently developing our next strategic plan for 2026-2030.
Some of our highlights from 2021-2025/6 to help move us closer to achieving our goal include:
- Development of the first-ever State of Africa’s Stillbirths report, launched at IMNHC 2026 and co-produced by African organizations and individuals with strong leadership from Africa CDC.
- Development of the Global Guide for Stillbirth Advocacy and Implementation in collaboration with a wide variety of international and local stakeholders supported by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This Guide was launched at the IMNHC 2023 event in Cape town in May 2023. Since then, it has been translated into French, Spanish and Portuguese.
- Support to the development of a UN Joint Technical Brief on Stillbirth in the Middle East/North Africa, now published in English and Arabic.
- Launch of the Health Provider Advocacy toolkit and Parent Advocacy toolkit brought to fruition under the Parent Voice Initiative grant from PMNCH and WHO SEARO. These toolkits are readily adaptable to different settings.
- Launch of the online registry of parent support organizations under the Parent Voice Initiative grant from PMNCH and WHO SEARO.
- During 2021 to 2025, ISA conferences were held in Brisbane, Australia (2021 and 2025), Salt Lake City, Utah, USA (2022), Sheffield, UK (2023), and Colombo, Sri Lanka (2024). In 2026, ISA had a strong presence at the IMNHC event in Nairobi, Kenya and in 2027 the ISA conference will be hosted by the PAIL network in Toronto, Canada.
When you support ISA:
- You help raise awareness about stillbirth and reduce stigma.
- You bring parents, clinicians, and researchers together to address stillbirth prevention and care in a collaborative way.
- You support scientific research to ensure effective action to reduce stillbirths and newborn deaths.
If you have any questions, please contact us at info@stillbirthalliance.org