Bleeding occurring in pregnancy after about the 24th week. There may be a risk to the baby, which might be in danger of inadequate blood supply, and to the mother.
COSMOs did not feel confident to manage acute coronary syndromes, cardiac arrhythmias, paediatric resuscitation and intubation, antepartum haemorrhage, cord prolapse, breech delivery and eclampsia.
Table 2 reveals that nurse-midwives referred most or all women with antepartum haemorrhage, severe anaemia, pregnancy-induced hypertension and obstructed labour (and their antecedent conditions).
Exclusion criteria were post-term pregnancies of [greater than or equal to] 40 weeks and 10 days, multiple pregnancies, grand multiparity, cephalopelvic disproportion, previous caesarean section or a uterine scar, fetal malpresentation, fetal distress, placenta praevia, antepartum haemorrhage, premature rupture of the membranes and medical disorders.
One of the first two authors then verified the information on the woman's hospital chart to ensure that the inclusion criteria (a retroplacental blood clot covering [greater than or equal to] 15% of the placental surface, gestational age [greater than or equal to] 24 weeks, coloured population and singleton pregnancy) and exclusion criteria (multiple pregnancy, other causes of antepartum haemorrhage and poor knowledge of Afrikaans or English, the languages in which the interviews were conducted) were applied.
While intrapartum asphyxia remains the predominant cause of death, and the order of causes remains almost the same, the proportion of deaths owing to hypertension, antepartum haemorrhage and infection has decreased.