Table 6 Participants’ recommendations when asked to characterise avoidable perinatal brain injury.

Specific definitions

Hypoxic ischaemic brain injury (n = 8)

Lack of oxygen supplied to the baby (n = 3)

Asphyxia (n = 2)

Bleed/haemorrhagic event (n = 1)

Attribution-based definitions

Caused by poor or suboptimal perinatal, antenatal, or intrapartum management or (lack of, late, or suboptimal) care (n = 12)

General, broad and/or inclusive definitions

Insult or injury to the neonatal brain (n = 5)

Certain types of obvious clinical damage relating to either primary brain but also multi-organ failure relating to ischaemic injury (n = 2)

Injury that can cause short or long-term developmental delay or suboptimal outcomes (n = 2)

Any intrapartum event associated with maternal or fetal conditions (n = 2)

Referential

Each Baby Counts report definition (n = 1), i.e. “severe brain injury diagnosed in the first 7 days of life, when the baby: (i) was diagnosed with grade III hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE) OR (ii) was therapeutically cooled (active cooling only) OR (iii) had decreased central tone AND was comatose AND had seizures of any kind”