The show writerstweetedcredit where credit was due: Arizona’s hemorrhage cart is a real thing!
It was pioneered by Dr. Elliott Main who works with California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative [CMQCC].
A hemorrhage cart is like a crash cart.
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It has meds, balloons, fluids.
This is a setting where minutes matter.
By contrast, Finland and Norways rate were both 3.8 deaths per 100,000 live births.
But Dr. Callaghan also believes many states rates could actually be lower than reported.
Cardiovascular disease is contributing a lot to the increase, he notes.
Other factors include increases in drug abuse, obesity, and diabetes, Dr. Callaghan adds.
The CDPH cites delayed recognition of and response to clinical warning signs as another factor.
We dont want to overmedicalize birth, but we want the patient to be heard.
If you have risk factors, that should be enough to trigger further evaluation of your symptoms.
He also notes that moreolder womenare having babies, which can mean a moremedically complicatedmaternal population.
So Dr. Main and his colleagues at Stanford University and the CDPH decided to do something about it.
We wanted to honor these tragedies by learning from them and making improvements, Dr. Main says.
(Thats a reduction of more than half in four years.)
We developed a set of best practices and key steps.
We focused on the most preventable causes of maternal death: hemorrhage and hypertension, Dr. Main says.
In these cases, death is 90 percent preventable.
Hypertensive disorders related to pregnancy including preeclampsia and eclampsia affects an estimated3 to 10 percentof pregnancies.
Between1999 and 2009, the obstetric hemorrhage rate increased from 1.5 percent to 4 percent of pregnancies.
There are 13 key steps in the bundle, which are explained in the toolkit.
Its very easy to follow, Dr. Main explains.
The toolkit also advises hospitals to keep blood products handy.
Any delivery hospital can implement these protocols, a CDPH spokesperson told SELF in an email.
An organized team response is crucial, especially in emergency situations.
We still have a long way to go, Dr. Main says.
Clearly there are issues that need further work in improving care of African-American women.
Unfortunately, being black is a risk factor for maternal mortality.
Racismdirectly contributesto health problems that canaffect pregnancy outcomes, andracial biasby health-care workers adds anotherlayer of increased danger.
Dr. Callaghan puts it bluntly: African Americans dont get the same level of care that white women do.
Inquire about the hospitals ability to address their risk factors that could lead to adverse outcomes.
And dont let doctors brush off your concerns as a case of paranoid pregnant person.
A hospitals participation indicates an ongoing commitment to quality and safety efforts, the spokesperson continued.
