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British maternity wards in crisis

Some very bleak reading, particularly in light of the recent CMACE report, Saving Mothers' Lives 2006-2008 which tells that sepsis now outranks even pre-eclampsia and eclampsia as the leading direct cause of maternal death. Deaths due to sepsis have risen from 18 in 2003-05 to 26 in 2006-08* - …

MEOWS: Recommended

… As for being a lone voice - this is what the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health (CEMACH) said in it's top 10 recommendations to save mothers' lives in it's 2007 report, using prevention of deaths from sepsis as an example:

Early warning scoring system

9. There is an urgent need for the routine use of a national obstetric early warning chart, similar to those in use in …

Don't miss the bear

… was a big cheer as everyone got the correct answer, and then a gasp!

I had a letter today, from CEMACH, with some of the comments made by the (mainly midwife) delegates at the South East Regional CEMACH conference in Basingstoke Jan 2009, in their evaluation forms. To underline the purpose of Jessica's Trust, the campaign and our petition, I thought I'd share a few:

Jessica's story …

Basingstoke

I was very glad to attend the South East Regional CEMACH conference in Basingstoke today. I was asked  to speak a few months ago, and as anyone who knows me will testify, I hate public speaking. As a result I blanked it until the last minute and just revised my last speech at the eleventh hour.

As yesterday approached, CEMACH offered me a …

Button pressed

… have to print an awful lot more.

I should have them in time to take to the South West regional CEMACH conference at the end of the month, where I'm speaking once again about Jessica, childbed fever and MEOWS charts, and CEMACH have very kindly let me share their stand at the conference.  I hope as many delegates as possible will take copies away with them, back to the maternity wards. …

1-2-3, Go

I had lunch yesterday with Dr Gwyneth Lewis, Director of the Maternal Deaths Enquiry for CEMACH. I spoke immediately after her at the conference in Birmingham a few weeks ago, and we had agreed to meet up in the near future.

It was a good opportunity to catch up with what I am doing through Jessica's Trust, and where she wants to go with maternal health, globally as well as …

MEOWS

Modified Early Obstetric Warning Score charts are instantly clear and they can save a life. What are they, though?

They are a single sheet chart, with time tracked across the top, where observations - pulse, blood pressure, temperature and a whole host of others - can be marked in the columns …

A chilling hot lunch

I had lunch with two of Jessica's girlfriends today. Soup and garlic bread in the glorious sunshine, and really nice to see them both.

We were talking about Jessica and her trust, and in the course of the conversation I fetched a copy of Saving Mother's Lives 2003-2005 to illustrate a point. …

Childbed fever: the facts

… you 'safe'

Lewis, G (ed) 2007. The Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health (CEMACH). Saving Mothers' Lives: reviewing maternal deaths to make motherhood safer - 2003-2005. The Seventh Report on Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths in the United Kingdom. London: CEMACH. ↩

Maternity resources

… she is spread amongst too many mothers. That is the case in hospital and within the community.

CEMACH recommends* that 'routine observations of pulse, BP, temperature, respiratory rate, and lochia should be made in all recently delivered women for several days postpartum' and yet most women are turfed out of hospital within a few hours, and often receive only one or two visits from a midwife …