Women admitted to ICUs during pregnancy have a 12-times higher rate of having a stillbirth and their babies have a higher risk of needing neonatal care, a study has shown. Researchers from the University of Edinburgh also found that women face significant risks to their own lives, including a twofold increase in hospital readmission in the six weeks after delivery and a 40-fold increased risk of mortality within a year. Findings showed that these women were older, more likely to be born in Africa, Asia, or the Middle East, and more likely to live in deprived areas.
Researchers found that these women were “more likely to be obese or severely obese.” They also had a “higher prevalence of comorbidity,” where a person has more than one condition or illness at the same time. Authors said, “Women who experience critical illness during pregnancy and the puerperium [the six-week period after childbirth] are at higher risk of a range of adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes, including maternal death, stillbirth and hospital readmission, compared with women who are not admitted to critical care.
” Another health concern found by Edinburgh researchers was that over half (53.8 percent) of these women in ICU needed medical ventilation. One-year hospital readmission was also almost three times higher (24.
5 percent) among women admitted to ICU compared with non-ICU mothers (8.9 percent). ICU admissions accounted for women both before and after birth.
The most frequent reason fo.