Many complications during pregnancy and labor can endanger the mother’s and the baby’s lives. Various factors can cause severe consequences, such as congenital disabilities, injuries and even death. A fatal issue that can happen among pregnant mothers is maternal cardiac arrest, which occurs in one out of 12,000 pregnancies in the country.
These cardiac arrests may happen before or during childbirth, endangering both mother and child. Studies show that these incidents often occur based on age and the mothers’ access to adequate medical care during pregnancy and labor. The risks could be higher during birth because this situation may bring about different health issues, leading to cardiac arrest. These conditions include the following:
- Preeclampsia
- Severe bleeding
- Sepsis
- Amniotic fluid embolism
- Heart failure
- Not enough oxygen or blood flow during delivery
Studies detected these risks, allowing the medical community to develop methods addressing these factors. These efforts improved the maternal cardiac arrest survival rate to 60% in 2011. Still, doctors acknowledge that pregnancy and childbirth continue to pose threats that could harm both the mother and the baby.
Sufficient prenatal care could help resolve health issues early, but severe problems often happen in the delivery room. In these emergencies, doctors can only rely on proper protocols and the maintenance of standard duty of care, helping them do what is best for the pregnant mother and the infant.
Mistakes can have grave repercussions
Some birth complications are inevitable, but some situations worsen due to a health care provider’s negligence or mistakes. If so, victims of these errors and reckless actions can file a claim for medical malpractice. Taking legal action might be the only way they can cover ongoing treatments for their birth injuries or get justice for the incident.
