'Safety bundles' may reduce pregnancy-related deaths, particularly among Black women
A woman begins losing blood during childbirth. Some vaginal bleeding is normal, but is it too much?
How that question gets answered – and how quickly a hemorrhaging mother gets treated – can make the difference between life and death. Excessive blood loss is the leading cause of death for women on the day they give birth and one of the leading causes of maternal death in the postpartum period. It is a complication that is far more likely to be fatal for Black women.
Heart conditions, high blood pressure disorders and strokes are among the other underlying causes of pregnancy-related deaths in the United States. Yet the majority of maternal deaths – 84% of them – may be preventable, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows. More hospitals are taking steps to make sure they are, by adopting evidence-based guidelines and best practices known as maternal safety bundles.
"These protocols work," said Dr. Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha, the Julia A. Okoro Professor of Black Maternal Health in the department of public health and community medicine at Tufts University in Boston. "When hospitals follow them, people's lives are saved."
What's driving the push for safety bundles, which standardize the care given to women during and after childbirth, is that hundreds of women in the U.S. die every year from pregnancy-related complications. Black, American Indian and Alaska Native women are at least twice as likely as their white peers to die during pregnancy, childbirth or in the weeks after giving birth.
"What we're looking to do is ensure standardization of care during delivery, especially for the conditions most likely to cause illness or death," said Dr. Audra Meadows, professor and vice chair for culture and justice...