Stillbirths will cost Australia more than $681m over the next five years, a new report has found, escalating calls for government investment in research and prevention.

The report, carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the Stillbirth Foundation Australia, is the first assessment of the economic impact of stillbirth and found the indirect and direct costs would tally $681.4m by 2020.

Victoria Bowring, the chief executive of the foundation, said the “significant, measurable impact” of stillbirth was testament to the need for greater investment into research and prevention from state and federal government.

“Sadly it often takes a dollar value to illustrate the magnitude of the problem,” she said. “This indicates quite clearly that it’s a health crisis that needs doing about.”

Absenteeism and “presenteeism” – lost productivity when employees come to work but are not fully functioning – accounted for just over a third of the total cost found in the report, $278.4m over the next five years.

The Lancet medical journal estimated that productivity after stillbirth was only at 26% after 30 days, increasing to 63% after six months.

Other economic impacts included hospital fees, totalling $74.5m over the next five years – more than lost productivity from leaving the labour force ($70.6m) – and counselling, at $53.2m.

The modelling was based on data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare that showed a stillbirth rate of 7.4 for every thousand births, as well as the slated increase in the Australian population and the number of births to 2020.

Stillbirth is the most common form of child mortality in Australia but one in every three deaths is thought to be preventable. Sixty-five per cent of stillbirths have no known cause.

Bowring called for more public and private investment in research and prevention, and proposed targeted intervention and improved access to counselling services to reduce the impact on families affected by stillbirth. She said a public health campaign was necessary to raise awareness.

“Something that we can use as a form of advertising and education, not only for mums-to-be and their partners but also their health clinicians, physicians, obstetrician, even the hospital system,” she said.

“If we can get consistent messaging about what the prevention measures are … it would have a very big impact on that figure [7.4 in every thousand births].”

The Stillbirth Foundation receives no government funding but has invested $1m in research over the past seven years.

That amount had been donated by affected families, Bowring said. “They’re the first that want to give back to ensure that this doesn’t happen to another family.”

She said government investment had measurable impact in reducing rates of sudden infant death syndrome and funding for stillbirth research could do the same. “Sadly it’s the lack of funds that slow us down.”

An ABC journalist was recently criticised for responding to a press release from the foundation by emailing “Don’t care, take me off your list thanks”.

Kristina Keneally, the former New South Wales premier and the patron of the foundation, publicised the journalist’s reply to illustrate the difficulties in raising awareness.

“One of the biggest challenges when it comes to stillbirth is getting people comfortable enough to talk about it,” she told Guardian Australia. “I don’t understand how any human being could get an email that said 1,700 babies died last year and answer with ‘I don’t care’.”

The ABC later apologised on behalf of the journalist.

Bowring said that was “sadly an all too common response”.

“People don’t understand it, don’t want to know about it, don’t want to talk about it and find it too difficult to even imagine.”