BACKGROUND In the latest (2011-2013) Saving Mothers report, the National Committee for Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths in South Africa (SA) (NCCEMD) highlights the large number of maternal deaths associated with caesarean section (CS). The risk of a woman dying as a result of CS during the past triennium was almost three times that for vaginal delivery. Of all the mothers who died d...

Objective To determine the effect of conservative management of morbidly adherent placentae on maternal morbidity and mortality and to review management options Methods All case notes of patients with placenta accreta and percreta between June 2008 and August 2010 were studied retrospectively. Results eight placentae percretae and 4 placentae accretae were identified out of a total of 11,358 de...

OBJECTIVE To review all pregnant women who required admission to an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) during pregnancy, childbirth or puerperium. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective follow-up study in a tertiary care centre in The Netherlands. The files of all obstetric ICU admissions over the period 1990-2001 were reviewed. RESULTS Over these 12 years, 142 women required ICU admission (0.76% of all deliver...

Introduction Risk prediction scores usually overestimate mortality in obstetric populations because mortality rates in this group are considerably lower than in others. Studies examining this effect were generally small and did not distinguish between obstetric and nonobstetric pathologies. We evaluated the performance of the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II model in o...