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British maternity wards in crisis

… 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* - 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 …

No.10 has responded to our petition. Or has it?

The Number 10 e-Petitions website has responded to the Maternal Health petition. Or has it?

The response considerately quotes paragraphs from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guideline Routine postnatal care of women and their babies (2006) which sets out what should happen.

It then quotes the Saving Mothers’ …

Maternal deaths are an outrage

… to give life."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon ( Reuters 19 May)

"We must find a way to get maternal mortality recognized as a key indicator of a functioning health system. Let us work together to make sure maternal mortality is a problem of the past and not our children's future."

Sarah Brown ( Reuters 19 May)

The justifiable outrage that pregnancy and childbirth continue to kill …

What is the point of twittering anyway?

… pass on messages and information about the Jessica's Trust campaign – often tagged with the #maternalhealth hashtag – and some of them are adept at bringing the cause to celebrity attention.

With some success:

In April Jonathan Ross (Wossy - an extremely popular twitterer) and his wife Jane Goldman (FerretPrincess) both signed and alerted their followers, saying respectively …

Look at the bigger picture

… it, then please sign our petition, if you haven't already.

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/maternalhealth/

MEOWS: Recommended

… MEOWS chart, I believe.

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, …

Mrs Brown gives away a free plug

I've been away from here for a little bit too long, with school holidays, work etc. I've also been concentrating on micro-blogging .

Just the other day I discovered that Sarah Brown had joined Twitter. As well as being Mrs G. Brown, she is a strong advocate of women's health in the developing …

On twitter

… of 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.

Why did I follow you?

If you are wondering why you are being followed, it is probably because:

You caught my eye on a friend's profile or were recommended

A scan of …

Life saving treatment wanted asap

… 500,000 - how wrong is this. Purely looking at sepsis, in 2003-2005 the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health recorded 18 deaths (0.85 per 100,000) from Genital tract sepsis (GTS). This would be 4.25 per 500,000, but more women than that give birth in this country each year. The average number of deaths per annum from GTS/CF is 6.

Far, far more are affected (no data is recorded, …

Topic for discussion

Maternal death is too uncomfortable a topic for discussion.

Please discuss in the comments.