Why Mothers Died and How their Lives are Saved: The Story of Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths

Description

One of the most dramatic changes to women's lives in the twentieth century was the advent of safe childbirth, reducing the maternal mortality rate from 1 in 400 births to 1 in 10,000 in just 80 years. The impetus behind this change was the Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Death (CEMD), now the world's longest running self-audit of a healthcare service. Here, leading authors in the CEMD tell the story of the pioneering clinicians behind the push for improvements, who received little recognition for their work despite its far-reaching consequences. One by one, the leading causes of maternal death were identified and resolved, from sepsis to safe abortions and more recently psychiatric illness and social and ethnic disparities in healthcare. Global maternal mortality is still too high; this valuable book shows how significant advances in maternal healthcare are possible when clinicians, politicians and the public work together.

James Owen Drife is Emeritus Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Leeds and was the Medical Director of the CEMD. He has been vice-president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and was an elected member of the General Medical Council. Gwyneth Lewis OBE is a Retired Professor and lead for International Women's Health University College London and served as both the Director of the CEMD and the Maternal Health Tsar for England until 2011. She also edited WHO's 'Beyond the Numbers', a handbook for reducing global maternal mortality which has been implemented in over sixty countries. James Neilson is Emeritus Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Liverpool. He was Co-ordinating Editor of the Cochrane Pregnancy & Childbirth Group 1995-2020, and the National Institute of Health Research Dean for Faculty Trainees 2008-2015. Marian Knight is Professor of Maternal and Child Population Health at the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford. She is the main author of the current annual MBRRACE-UK Maternal Mortality Reports, the replacement for the CEMD. Griselda Cooper OBE is a retired Senior Lecturer at the University of Birmingham and consultant anaesthetist at Birmingham Women's Hospital. She has been Vice-President of the Royal College of Anaesthetists. Roch Cantwell is a Retired Consultant Perinatal Psychiatrist, Leverndale Hospital, Glasgow. He is Lead Clinician for NHS Scotland's National Perinatal Mental Health Managed Clinical Network and was lead psychiatry adviser to the CEMD 2011-2021.