A drive to cut baby deaths across the UK was being launched today.
Tagged Each Baby Counts, the project will seek to bring together information from all hospitals about the circumstances surrounding deaths and brain injury.
Launched by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the project sets itself a target to halve death rates by the end of the decade.
It is being backed by the US charity, the March of Dimes.
The college said it did not accept that all still births and cases of cerebral palsy were "unavoidable tragedies" linked to congenital problems.
The project will revive the work previously undertaken by a national confidential inquiry team studying baby deaths around the time of birth, which closed in 2011.
In 2012, researchers commissioned to continue the work said they could not do so because of massive deficiencies in the quality of data. Their report said about a third of the information it needed was missing, including birth weights in 19% of cases and a cause of death code in 39% of cases.
Professor Alan Cameron, from the college, said: "Stillbirth, neonatal death or the birth of a baby at full term but with brain injuries are life-changing and tragic events which often affect women and their families for many years.
"Our task is to collect data from all UK units to identify avoidable factors in these cases. We will monitor where these incidents occur and why.
"Sharing of these sensitive data will provide us all with a unique opportunity to improve the care we provide and save lives.”
Professor Zarko Alfirevic, who will lead investigations, said: "This is one of the most ambitious and exciting projects in women’s health in the UK at the moment. Our goal poses a significant challenge but we are confident that we will achieve it.
"Currently, when these events occur they are investigated locally, however, because the lessons learned from these local reviews are not being shared, opportunities to improve care at a national level are being missed.
"The Each Baby Counts project aims to pool the results of local investigations to gain a national picture and develop actions to prevent these tragedies from recurring."
The project was welcomed by the Royal College of Midwives.
Jacque Gerrard, from the college, said: "It is vital that we learn the lessons from each of these tragic events. We must also ensure that what we learn is shared and any actions implemented across the whole country.
"We hope that the RCOG quality improvement initiative target of halving the number of events by 2020 is achieved. This will go a long way towards sparing families the immense grief and stress that stillbirth and poor neonatal health outcomes have on families."
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