The National Partnership of Maternal Safety is a multidisciplinary workgroup of the Council on Patient Safety in Women’s Health Care.
Severe hypertension affects two to three percent of pregnant women and can be extremely dangerous. It is the leading cause of preventable maternal mortality. Being able to react quickly when a pregnant or recently postpartum mother presents with severe hypertension is crucial to mitigating the damage that might otherwise be done to the mother or the fetus.
To help providers get a better grasp on how to recognize and treat severe hypertension in pregnant and postpartum women, the National Partnership of Maternal Safety – a multidisciplinary workgroup of the Council on Patient Safety in Women’s Health Care – has outlined a 14-point safety bundle with specific quality improvement recommendations for every phase of the care process.
Kathryn Menard, MD, MPH, director of maternal-fetal medicine and vice chair for obstetrics at the UNC School of Medicine, was the senior author of the commentary that describes the bundle. The safety bundle was published simultaneously in four journals: Obstetrics & Gynecology, Anesthesia & Analgesia, the Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health, and the Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing.