The Healthcare Ministry office in Plovdiv has launched an investigation to determine why there have been nine cases of stillbirth at the St. Georgi University Hospital over the past three months, Bulgarian daily Sega reported on January 8 2009.

Georgi Bozhikov, the office's director, has said that the first step was to collect data for the previous five years. A thorough analysis would allow the hospital to establish whether the higher number of stillbirths was a tendency or a "black series," Bozhikov said, quoted by Sega daily. Considering that St. Georgi University Hospital was the largest and best equipped hospital not only in the Plovdiv region, but in the country, it was bound to receive more patients. It was therefore possible that these cases were just an accumulation of isolated incidents rather than a trend for the region, Bozhikov said.

Regarding the recent cases, seven women were from Plovdiv, one was from Smolyan and one came from Pazardjik. Bozhikov has said that the inquiry into what has led to the stillbirths would begin with how the women's physicians had monitored the pregnancy. There could have been lapses in medical care given to the pregnant women such as overlooked high blood pressure or diabetes, Bozhikov has said.

On the other hand, the women might not have been persistent enough in seeking professional help which might have detected untoward developments. The babies were stillborn, but not prematurely born, so it was unlikely that the hospital was fully liable, Bozhikov has said. He added that some of the reasons for stillbirth could be suffocation with umbilical cord or a detached placenta, but such complications were normally discovered by the doctors.

Bozhikov has said that if the investigation concludes that the cases were due to negligence of monitoring during pregnancy then some sanctions could be imposed on the physicians. But he did not specify what these would be.