Katonah mother calls for action on preventable stillbirths

KATONAH, N.Y. - In 2013, Samantha Durante Banerjee’s daughter, Alana, was stillborn. The tragedy was obvious, but the comforting words about trying again and being young always fell short.

“As if one child replaces another,” said the Katonah mother of two.

That said, the loneliness and lack of understanding she encountered were far from the worst part.

Alana’s death was very possibly preventable, according to Durante Banerjee, and the knowledge — along with the heartbreak — has kept her from staying silent.

PushPregnancy.org is a national organization dedicated to raising awareness about stillbirth prevention and advocating for systemic change. As founder and executive director, Durante Banerjee now has 150 families involved nationwide.

However, she was once simply content to be an expectant mother who took nothing for granted.

“I read every book, blog and website I could get my hands on,” said Durante Banerjee.

“Blissfully happy,” as she remembered it, she and her husband were finally going to bring home “our baby.”

Then the unthinkable occurred.

“Told she no longer had a heartbeat,” said Durante Banerjee, “we were completely shocked and horrified with no idea how this could happen.”

The pristine image of Alana made the loss even harder.

“She was beautiful and perfect — like she was sleeping,” Durante Banerjee recalled.

So home the couple went.

“Our lives had been turned completely upside down,” she said. “We felt so completely alone.”

There was little help from the professional ranks either.

“The rates of PTSD, anxiety and depression are extremely high, and because of the lack of mental health care accessibility, people are often poorly diagnosed,” the activist lamented.

Self-blame is also common among mothers, and actual answers would go a long way. Instead, the cause of death often lacks a sufficient explanation.

In Alana’s case, the umbilical cord became twisted, cutting off blood flow.

“She died of a sudden lack of blood flow and oxygen,” Durante Banerjee said of the findings.

Even determining the truth proved to be a process. While pathology reports are produced, there are not enough trained professionals to review them properly, according to Durante Banerjee.

Years later, at a conference, one of the world’s leading neonatal pathologists offered to help. Dr. Harvey Kliman reviewed the report and determined that the protective coiling of the cord had begun breaking down.

In turn, the blood flow and oxygen problems had actually begun two weeks earlier. Around that same time, Durante Banerjee noticed a distinct lack of movement and kicking.

Along with stalled growth, these are warning signs the expectant mother knew nothing about.

“It absolutely could have been detected,” Durante Banerjee explained. “Alana could have been delivered at any time.”

She said evidence that prevention efforts work can also be found abroad.

In Europe, countries with national health care systems and the same risks were forced to respond to public pressure, and safeguards are now in place.

Parents are educated about warning signs and preventative care, while medical professionals continue scanning, monitoring and testing well beyond the American standard.

“Sure enough,” she said, “there’s been a 20-30% drop.”

Back in the United States, attempts to tweak the system often run into resistance from the system itself.

That means doctors and hospitals put themselves at risk if they stray from standard-of-care directives.

It is a roadblock Durante Banerjee still faces when bringing suggestions to local hospitals.

“The College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists — they are the professional association for obstetrics. They set the standard of care, and unfortunately, they have not accepted doing anything about ending preventable stillbirth,” she said.

Still, PUSH has achieved some meaningful victories.

“One of our biggest wins was in 2022,” she said.

The momentum came when the National Institutes of Health (NIH) agreed to meet on the issue for the first time in a decade. Even then, the gathering required pressure from advocates because avoidable stillbirth had initially been left off the agenda.

Instead, topics such as drug use and obesity took center stage — something that did not sit well with the audience.

“The vast majority of stillbirths are happening to healthy, low-risk pregnancies,” she said.

The issue became even more troubling when racial disparities were factored in, and parents in attendance spoke up when given the chance.

According to Durante Banerjee, committee members resisted hearing those concerns.

“They locked us out,” she remembered.

But silencing grieving parents proved far more difficult in the 21st century.

Parents went online and barraged the committee with messages through Twitter and email.

“Our babies were born into silence, so we were going to be their voice,” she said.

The campaign did not go unnoticed.

“I got several calls from people on the NIH committee saying that we’d struck a nerve,” Durante Banerjee said.

Eventually, the committee added a fourth session devoted to parents sharing their stories, fundamentally shifting the conversation.

“By the end, you could see that the NIH was emotionally destroyed,” she said. “They finally heard us and understood the depths to which this utterly transformed our lives.”

As a result, the final report reflected the true nature of the issue. A prevention committee was scheduled, and $37 million was set aside for research.

“This was a huge turning point for this movement,” she said.

PUSH is also trying to make an impact locally.

With the dedication of nurses at Northern Westchester Hospital, patients are being educated about prevention. However, Durante Banerjee said the hospital still falls short in providing accredited training for stillbirth prevention.

“They told me there’s no budget,” she said.

The organization is also pushing to end the birth outcome disparities that exist along racial lines.

Of course, Durante Banerjee has no plans to go away.

“Their faces drop when I walk in the room,” she joked.

Still, there is nothing funny about 65 babies dying every day in the United States, and that reality continues to drive her mission.

With the necessary changes relatively simple to implement, Durante Banerjee concluded:

“My vision is for Westchester County to become the leader in the country — to show that this is possible and that we can do better.”

For more information, visit PUSH Pregnancy at www.pushpregnancy.org.