| Abstrakt: |
The increasing centralization and reconfiguration of obstetric services demands insight into the prehospital (and inter-hospital) risks of emergency obstetric care. This applies to emergency admissions from home, to transfer of women who encounter problems during home delivery and also to interfacility transfers from stand-alone midwifery-led units, without the facilities for obstetric emergency intervention, to place of safety consultant obstetric units, as well as transfers from obstetric units to network tertiary centres with neonatal intensive care facilities and for definitive treatment of the critically-ill woman. This article discusses the risks of reconfiguration including the balance between safety and accessibility. The planned reconfiguration of obstetric services must always take into account the need for high quality pre-hospital and inter-hospital care of obstetric emergencies. This requires well-trained and experienced paramedics as full members of the obstetric team. The Pre-Hospital Obstetric Trauma course of the Advanced Life Support Group will become the standard for high quality care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
