Over 3,000 lives are lost to stillbirth a day across the world - most of which are preventable, according to studies published by The Lancet.

Two-thirds of last year's 2.6 million stillbirths were in Africa.

Half of stillbirths happen during labour as a result of preventable conditions, notably syphilis and malaria, they add.

The studies argue stillbirths are preventable through high-quality antenatal care.

The studies say there is a widespread belief that stillbirths are due to birth defects and are unavoidable.

However, it points out that this only accounts for 7.3% of stillbirths after 28 weeks.

They ranked the three countries with the highest rates of still births as Pakistan, followed by Nigeria and Chad.

A notable exception is Rwanda, which the studies point out was able to reduce the number of stillbirths.