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British maternity wards in crisis

… 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* - a staggering 44%.

Is it any wonder that we have headlines like this one:

British maternity wards in crisis - Health News, Health & Families - The Independent.

 

* Centre for Maternal and Child Enquiries …

Maternal deaths are an outrage

… archiac disease such as childbed fever, which is still one of the most common causes of maternal death?

I feel sure that Jasmine Pickett's and Amy Kimmance's families, amongst others, would join me in asking this. I hope that the Coroner in their Inquests, currently being heard in Winchester, may be able to shed some light on the answer.

MEOWS: Recommended

… 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 other areas of clinical practice, which can be used for all obstetric women which will help in the more timely …

On twitter

… childbed fever - a post-natal septicaemic infection. Childbed fever accounted for 14% of maternal deaths in the UK between 2003 and 2005.

I'd like to stop unnecessary death and illness from this archaic disease.

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Life saving treatment wanted asap

… including, but not exclusively, childbed fever (CF). This means that severe illness and/or death can be avoided.

I am not an advocate of prophylactic use of antibiotics, indeed more women than are saved from sepsis may die of allergic reaction.

As for benefitting only 1 in 500,000 - how wrong is this. Purely looking at sepsis, in 2003-2005 the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and …

Topic for discussion

Maternal death is too uncomfortable a topic for discussion.

Please discuss in the comments.

Rising GAS

… disease. Not quite the study of cases of childbed fever including those that do not result in death that I'd like to see (and is, I know, in planning) but a welcome step in the right direction.

If group A strep infection is more prevalent in the community at the moment, then there will be more cases of childbed fever as well, one could assume. Let the doctors and midwives be aware and be …

Thank you so much

… which, together with the use of MEOWS, would greatly reduce the chance of severe illness and/or death.

I also believe, without for a minute wanting to alarm or create terror, that all mothers and their partners should know of and understand the risks of a uterine infection, so that instead of thinking that maybe it's a case of flu, they immediately refer themselves back to their midwife or …

NHS Trust apology: maternal deaths

… of deterioration, or better advance preparation to manage identified risk, may have averted the deaths'.

Link to article: NHS trust apologises over 'exceptionally high' maternal deaths

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… a serious form of postnatal septicaemia which can lead to toxic shock syndrome, organ failure and death.  In 2003-05 sepsis accounted for 14% of maternal deaths in the UK. A complication free delivery is no guarantee of safety from sepsis and any mother can be affected. MEOWS charts are a sheet on which observations (pulse, blood pressure, temperature) can be recorded. They are clear and …