Introduction
Postpartum hemorrhage is a leading cause of maternal morbidity and mortality in the United States and in the world. Rapid recognition and treatment are necessary to prevent progression of hemorrhage as women can lose large volumes of blood very quickly due to the physiologic changes of pregnancy. While obstetric hemorrhage is a low-volume but high-risk event for any birth facility, lack of advanced planning can result in the lack of rapid, coordinated responses which could be the contributing factor in deaths from maternal hemorrhage. It has been proven that birth facilities who have implemented systematic protocols for recognizing and responding to hemorrhage have demonstrated improved outcomes such as decreased use of both blood products and higher level interventions such as uterine artery embolization and hysterectomy. Adopting protocols and educating all levels of staff with those protocols will assist in the early recognition and treatment of postpartum hemorrhage with the end goal to improve maternal morbidity and mortality.
References:
- Improving Health Care Response to Obstetric Hemorrhage Version 2.0 A California Quality Improvement Toolkit. March 24, 2015
- Council on Patient Safety in Women’s Health Care Patient Safety Bundles and Tools
- OB Hemorrhage QI Toolkits