By Nancy Lapid

(Reuters) -Stillbirths in the U.S. are more common than previously reported, affecting roughly 1 in 150 pregnancies, and rates are even higher in lower-income areas, according to results from a large study published on Monday.

The national average reported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is 1 in 175 pregnancies.

The CDC’s main source of data – fetal death certificates collected by individual states – is less reliable than the commercial insurance claims data used in the new study, researchers said.

“Both of these data sources – the data in our study and the CDC data – have potential flaws, but the main issue is that, regardless of data source, the rate of stillbirths is too high,” said study co-leader Jessica Cohen of the Harvard T.H. Chan School o

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