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      Trends in adverse maternal outcomes during childbirth: a population-based study of severe maternal morbidity

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          Abstract

          Background

          Maternal mortality is too rare in high income countries to be used as a marker of the quality of maternity care. Consequently severe maternal morbidity has been suggested as a better indicator. Using the maternal morbidity outcome indicator (MMOI) developed and validated for use in routinely collected population health data, we aimed to determine trends in severe adverse maternal outcomes during the birth admission and in particular to examine the contribution of postpartum haemorrhage (PPH).

          Methods

          We applied the MMOI to the linked birth-hospital discharge records for all women who gave birth in New South Wales, Australia from 1999 to 2004 and determined rates of severe adverse maternal outcomes. We used frequency distributions and contingency table analyses to examine the association between adverse outcomes and maternal, pregnancy and birth characteristics, among all women and among only those with PPH. Using logistic regression, we modelled the effects of these characteristics on adverse maternal outcomes. The impact of adverse outcomes on duration of hospital admission was also examined.

          Results

          Of 500,603 women with linked birth and hospital records, 6242 (12.5 per 1,000) suffered an adverse outcome, including 22 who died. The rate of adverse maternal outcomes increased from 11.5 in 1999 to 13.8 per 1000 deliveries in 2004, an annual increase of 3.8% (95%CI 2.3–5.3%). This increase occurred almost entirely among women with a PPH. Changes in pregnancy and birth factors during the study period did not account for increases in adverse outcomes either overall, or among the subgroup of women with PPH. Among women with severe adverse outcomes there was a 12% decrease in hospital days over the study period, whereas women with no severe adverse outcome occupied 23% fewer hospital days in 2004 than in 1999.

          Conclusion

          Severe adverse maternal outcomes associated with childbirth have increased in Australia and the increase was entirely among women who experienced a PPH. Reducing or stabilising PPH rates would halt the increase in adverse maternal outcomes.

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          Most cited references36

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          WHO systematic review of maternal morbidity and mortality: the prevalence of severe acute maternal morbidity (near miss)

          Aim To determine the prevalence of severe acute maternal morbidity (SAMM) worldwide (near miss). Method Systematic review of all available data. The methodology followed a pre-defined protocol, an extensive search strategy of 10 electronic databases as well as other sources. Articles were evaluated according to specified inclusion criteria. Data were extracted using data extraction instrument which collects additional information on the quality of reporting including definitions and identification of cases. Data were entered into a specially constructed database and tabulated using SAS statistical management and analysis software. Results A total of 30 studies are included in the systematic review. Designs are mainly cross-sectional and 24 were conducted in hospital settings, mostly teaching hospitals. Fourteen studies report on a defined SAMM condition while the remainder use a response to an event such as admission to intensive care unit as a proxy for SAMM. Criteria for identification of cases vary widely across studies. Prevalences vary between 0.80% – 8.23% in studies that use disease-specific criteria while the range is 0.38% – 1.09% in the group that use organ-system based criteria and included unselected group of women. Rates are within the range of 0.01% and 2.99% in studies using management-based criteria. It is not possible to pool data together to provide summary estimates or comparisons between different settings due to variations in case-identification criteria. Nevertheless, there seems to be an inverse trend in prevalence with development status of a country. Conclusion There is a clear need to set uniform criteria to classify patients as SAMM. This standardisation could be made for similar settings separately. An organ-system dysfunction/failure approach is the most epidemiologically sound as it is least open to bias, and thus could permit developing summary estimates.
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            Incidence and predictors of severe obstetric morbidity: case-control study.

            To estimate the incidence and predictors of severe obstetric morbidity. Development of definitions of severe obstetric morbidity by literature review. Case-control study from a defined delivery population with four randomly selected pregnant women as controls for every case. All 19 maternity units within the South East Thames region and six neighbouring hospitals caring for pregnant women from the region between 1 March 1997 and 28 February 1998. 48 865 women who delivered during the time frame. There were 588 cases of severe obstetric morbidity giving an incidence of 12.0/1000 deliveries (95% confidence interval 11.2 to 13.2). During the study there were five maternal deaths attributed to conditions studied. Disease specific morbidities per 1000 deliveries were 6.7 (6.0 to 7.5) for severe haemorrhage, 3.9 (3.3 to 4.5) for severe pre-eclampsia, 0.2 (0.1 to 0.4) for eclampsia, 0.5 (0.3 to 0.8) for HELLP (Haemolysis, Elevated Liver enzymes, and Low Platelets) syndrome, 0.4 (0.2 to 0.6) for severe sepsis, and 0.2 (0.1 to 0.4) for uterine rupture. Age over 34 years, non-white ethnic group, past or current hypertension, previous postpartum haemorrhage, delivery by emergency caesarean section, antenatal admission to hospital, multiple pregnancy, social exclusion, and taking iron or anti-depressants at antenatal booking were all independently associated with morbidity after adjustment. Severe obstetric morbidity and its relation to mortality may be more sensitive measures of pregnancy outcome than mortality alone. Most events are related to obstetric haemorrhage and severe pre-eclampsia. Caesarean section quadruples the risk of morbidity. Development and evaluation of ways of predicting and reducing risk are required with particular emphasis paid on the management of haemorrhage and pre-eclampsia.
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              An enhanced method for identifying obstetric deliveries: implications for estimating maternal morbidity.

              The accuracy of maternal morbidity estimates from hospital discharge data may be influenced by incomplete identification of deliveries. In maternal/infant health studies, obstetric deliveries are often identified only by the maternal outcome of delivery code (International Classification of Diseases code = V27). We developed an enhanced delivery identification method based on additional delivery-related codes and compared the performance of the enhanced method with the V27 method in identifying estimates of deliveries as well as estimates of maternal morbidity. The enhanced and standard V27 methods for identifying deliveries were applied to data from the 1998-2004 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Nationwide Inpatient Sample, an annual nationwide representative survey of U.S. hospitalizations. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) from logistic regression were used to examine predictors of deliveries not identified using the V27 method. The enhanced method identified 958,868 (3.4%) more deliveries than the 27,128,539 identified using the V27 code alone. Severe complications including major puerperal infections (OR = 3.1, 95% CI 2.8-3.4), hysterectomy (OR = 6.0, 95% CI 5.3-6.8), sepsis (OR = 11.9, 95% CI 10.3-13.6) and respiratory distress syndrome (OR = 16.6, 95% CI 14.4-19.2) were strongly associated with deliveries not identified by the V27 method. Nationwide prevalence rates of severe maternal complications were underestimated with the V27 method compared to the enhanced method, ranging from 9% underestimation for major puerperal infections to 40% underestimation for respiratory distress syndrome. Deliveries with severe obstetric complications may be more likely to be missed using the V27 code. Researchers should be aware that selecting deliveries from hospital stay records by V27 codes alone may affect the accuracy of their findings.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                BMC Pregnancy Childbirth
                BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
                BioMed Central
                1471-2393
                2009
                25 February 2009
                : 9
                : 7
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Clinical and Population Perinatal Health Research, The Kolling Institute of Medical Research, University of Sydney 2006, NSW, Australia
                [2 ]Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Royal North Shore Hospital, St Leonards 2065, NSW, Australia
                [3 ]School of Public Health, University of Sydney 2006, NSW, Australia
                Article
                1471-2393-9-7
                10.1186/1471-2393-9-7
                2653462
                19243578
                d092eca4-3af7-4e47-8525-974b932dda02
                Copyright © 2009 Roberts et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

                This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

                History
                : 2 October 2008
                : 25 February 2009
                Categories
                Research Article

                Obstetrics & Gynecology
                Obstetrics & Gynecology

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