The
birth of a dead
baby. A late term
miscarriage. The difference between stillbirth and miscarriage is fairly arbitrary and based on how far along in pregnancy it occurs. (Depends by country and state - I think it's usually at about 7 months.) It generally carries a significant
legal difference however - while miscarriages needn't be reported (except of course for
health reasons to your
doctor), a stillbirth must be reported and a cause of death identified before a doctor can issue a certificate of stillbirth (like a
death certificate), which in turn is needed for a
burial (or
cremation or whatever) to legally occur. Stillbirths can be caused simply by
stress to the
womb, or a host of other factors, among them
infections and genetic disorders.