Deaths related to intrapartum asphyxia

BMJ 1998;316:1318 ( 25 April )

Letters

Deaths related to intrapartum asphyxia

Audit in one unit found neonatal care to be suboptimal at weekends

Intrapartum death rates in England in 1993-5 did not show consistent peaks or troughs

Denominators are needed before conclusions can be drawn

Consultant expansion in obstetrics and gynaecology is not fast enough

Audit in one unit found neonatal care to be suboptimal at weekends

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ Stewart et al reported that an excess of deaths related to intrapartum care occurred outside office hours.¹ In arecent audit done over four months we found that routine neonatalcare on our unit was suboptimal at weekends compared with weekdays.Altogether 760 (82.7%) of 919 women had their babies examinedby a neonatal senior house officer before they were dischargedby their obstetrician during weekdays, compared with only 150(53.8%) of 279 women at weekends. Forty (14.3%) women had to waitbetween two and six hours for their babies to be examined at weekends,compared with 77 (8.4%) during the week. Our aim should be todeliver the same standard of neonatal care $---$ both acute and non-acute $---$ atall times. This may require increases in the numbers of seniorhouse officers working in neonatal units at weekends. Alternatively,an extended role for midwives could include performing routineneonatal examinations. This would . . . [Full text of this article]

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Relevant Article

Numbers of deaths related to intrapartum asphyxia and timing of birth in all Wales perinatal survey, 1993-5: Jane H Stewart, Joan Andrews, and Patrick H T Cartlidge
BMJ 1998 316: 657-660. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]