Haunting ‘Roma’ scene shines a rare spotlight on stillbirths

Of all the little moments of joy and strife that fill the top-nominated Oscar film “Roma,” the most gut-wrenching takes place in a Mexico City hospital room, where a doctor coolly tells a frightened young woman, “Your baby was born dead.”

The haunting scene, set in 1971, graphically introduces a subject that today is still poorly understood and often avoided. While global rates have declined since then, stillbirths remain surprisingly common with nearly 3 million each year, most in developing countries.

The U.S. rate, 6 in 1,000 births, hasn’t budged in a decade and the . . .