The rising rate of babies born lifeless has piqued the concern of Minnesota health officials, and now it has triggered action in the Legislature.

Following last month's Star Tribune article on Minnesota's stillbirth rate — 5 to 6 fetal deaths per 1,000 live births — legislators amended a bill to encourage the state's maternal health advisory task force to study fetal deaths and how they can be prevented.

Studying a problem is a safe step: It gives elected officials the chance to initially address it without committing tax dollars to solving it. Encouraging rather than requiring a study is an even weaker move, but it has encouraged advocates of greater attention to the problem, considering that stillbirths weren't on Minnesota's political map at the start of the year.

"We hope this is just the first step in getting the conversation started," said Chris Duffy of Roseville, whose wife delivered a stillborn daughter last fall. The umbilical cord was wrapped twice around the baby's neck.

Limited research on the problem has pointed to risk factors among pregnant women including obesity, diabetes and smoking.

Minnesota stillbirth advocates also wonder whether there is a correlation between the rise in fetal deaths and a policy in Minnesota and numerous other states discouraging elective childbirth inductions before 39 weeks gestation. The policy has helped cut birth complications associated with unnecessary early deliveries, but advocates worry it also has discouraged early inductions of labor that could have prevented stillbirths.

A Penn State doctor even traveled to Minnesota last month to discuss the potential link with a Medicaid official.

State officials don't see a problem if the 39-week policy is applied appropriately. And they worry that rumors of a link could weaken the resolve of healthy expecting mothers to wait until 39 weeks to consider inducing labor, and that could undermine progress in reducing birth complications. But they are revisiting hospital leaders to make sure the policy isn't applied to complicated pregnancies. (The Joint Commission lists 79 conditions for which early inductions would still be appropriate considerations.)

Progress could come without answering that dilemma. Iowa's stillbirth rate, for example, has declined since 2006. State officials believe a campaign at the very least has helped with this decline by teaching mothers to count their babies' kicks, which are indicators of fetal health.