After a long road of unanswered questions and painful searching, we learned that he was stillborn due to an abnormally small placenta. There are placental health measuring tools that could be a key to ending these preventable stillbirths, including one called Estimated Placental Volume (EPV) which was developed by Dr. Harvey Kliman, a placenta expert at Yale University. My son Elijah had two third-trimester ultrasounds to confirm fetal position in hopes of avoiding a C-section — something I desperately wanted to avoid, but would have gladly chosen if it meant Elijah would survive. What if the ultrasound tech had taken 30-seconds to measure Elijah’s placental volume? ADVERTISEMENTDr. Ann O’Neill is director of Measure the Placenta, a volunteer-led organization working to raise awareness and advance the routine measurement of the placenta in prenatal care.