Frequency of Prenatal Care Visits: Protocol to Develop a Core Outcome Set for Prenatal Care Schedules.

BACKGROUND: Prenatal care, one of the most common preventive care services in the United States, endeavors to improve pregnancy outcomes through evidence-based screenings and interventions. Despite the prevalence of prenatal care and its importance to maternal and infant health, there are several debates about the best methods of prenatal care delivery, including the most appropriate schedule frequency and content of prenatal visits. Current US national guidelines recommend that low-risk individuals receive a standard schedule of 12 to 14 in-office visits, a care delivery model that has remained unchanged for almost a century. OBJECTIVE: In early 2020, to mitigate individuals' exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, prenatal care providers implemented new paradigms that altered the schedule frequency, interval, and modality (eg, telemedicine) of how prenatal care services were offered. In this paper, we describe the development of a core outcome set (COS) that can be used to evaluate the effect of the frequency of prenatal care schedules on maternal and infant outcomes. METHODS: We will systematically review the literature to identify previously reported outcomes important to individuals who receive prenatal care and the people who care for them. Stakeholders with expertise in prenatal care delivery (ie, patients or family members, health care providers, and public health professionals and policy makers) will rate the importance of identified outcomes in a web-based survey using a 3-round Delphi process. A digital consensus meeting will be held for a group of stakeholder representatives to discuss and vote on the outcomes to include in the final COS. RESULTS: The Delphi survey was initiated in July 2022 with invited 71 stakeholders. A digital consensus conference was conducted on October 11, 2022. Data are currently under analysis with plans to submit them in a subsequent manuscript. CONCLUSIONS: More research about the optimal schedule frequency and modality for prenatal care delivery is needed. Standardizing outcomes that are measured and reported in evaluations of the recommended prenatal care schedules will assist evidence synthesis and results reported in systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Overall, this COS will expand the consistency and patient-centeredness of reported outcomes for various prenatal care delivery schedules and modalities, hopefully improving the overall efficacy of recommended care delivery for pregnant people and their families. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/43962.

Outcomes Following Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation for Severe COVID-19 in Pregnancy or Post Partum.

Importance: Existing reports of pregnant patients with COVID-19 disease who require extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) are limited, with variable outcomes noted for the maternal-fetal dyad. Objective: To examine maternal and perinatal outcomes associated with ECMO used for COVID-19 with respiratory failure during pregnancy. Design, Setting, and Participants: This retrospective multicenter cohort study examined pregnant and postpartum patients who required ECMO for COVID-19 respiratory failure at 25 hospitals across the US. Eligible patients included individuals who received care at one of the study sites, were diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy or up to 6 weeks post partum by positive nucleic acid or antigen test, and for whom ECMO was initiated for respiratory failure from March 1, 2020, to October 1, 2022. Exposures: ECMO in the setting of COVID-19 respiratory failure. Main outcome and measures: The primary outcome was maternal mortality. Secondary outcomes included serious maternal morbidity, obstetrical outcomes, and neonatal outcomes. Outcomes were compared by timing of infection during pregnancy or post partum, timing of ECMO initiation during pregnancy or post partum, and periods of circulation of SARS-CoV-2 variants. Results: From March 1, 2020, to October 1, 2022, 100 pregnant or postpartum individuals were started on ECMO (29 [29.0%] Hispanic, 25 [25.0%] non-Hispanic Black, 34 [34.0%] non-Hispanic White; mean [SD] age: 31.1 [5.5] years), including 47 (47.0%) during pregnancy, 21 (21.0%) within 24 hours post partum, and 32 (32.0%) between 24 hours and 6 weeks post partum; 79 (79.0%) had obesity, 61 (61.0%) had public or no insurance, and 67 (67.0%) did not have an immunocompromising condition. The median (IQR) ECMO run was 20 (9-49) days. There were 16 maternal deaths (16.0%; 95% CI, 8.2%-23.8%) in the study cohort, and 76 patients (76.0%; 95% CI, 58.9%-93.1%) had 1 or more serious maternal morbidity events. The largest serious maternal morbidity was venous thromboembolism and occurred in 39 patients (39.0%), which was similar across ECMO timing (40.4% pregnant [19 of 47] vs 38.1% [8 of 21] immediately postpartum vs 37.5% postpartum [12 of 32]; P > .99). Conclusions and Relevance: In this multicenter US cohort study of pregnant and postpartum patients who required ECMO for COVID-19-associated respiratory failure, most survived but experienced a high frequency of serious maternal morbidity.

COVID-19 and its effect on Instagram adoption by #OBGYN residency programs.

OBJECTIVES: Instagram (IG) is becoming one of the larger resource tools within medicine. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is becoming important for programs to improve virtual presence and outreach. We evaluated the adoption of IG by OB/GYN residency programs in the United States and aimed to see if highly ranked programs had higher utilization rates. METHODS: IG presence and engagement metrics were extracted for all ACGME accredited OB/GYN programs. Doximity residency navigator tool was used to obtain nationwide program rankings, and statistical analysis was performed to prove any significant correlation. Mann-Whitney U test, Cochran-Armitage test and Analysis of variance were used for analysis. IRB exemption was obtained. RESULTS: Seventy percent of programs (202/287) have IG presence, with the majority creating presence after the COVID pandemic began (115/202; 57%). Seventy-two percent (83/115) of these programs created their IG account once virtual interviews were announced. The top 25% of programs, as ranked on Doximity, have a higher number of posts, followers and likes when compared to the rest of the programs. CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased adoption of IG by residency programs. Highly ranked and reputed programs have higher rates of activity, popularity, and engagement on IG.

Designing your patient's prenatal care "PATH": Recommendations for maternity care professionals based on MiPATH

The article provides recommendations for maternity care professionals when designing their patient's prenatal care Plan for Appropriate Tailored Healthcare (PATH). Topics discussed include evidence supporting prenatal care recommendations, information on Michigan PATH (MiPATH) panel process, and MiPATH panel recommendations which includes screening for medical, social, and structural determinants of health, telemedicine, and supporting for social and structural determinants.

Rapid Deployment of a Drive-Through Prenatal Care Model in Response to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been declared a public health emergency for the entire United States. Providing access to prenatal health care while limiting exposure of both obstetric health care professionals and patients to COVID-19 is challenging. Although reductions in the frequency of prenatal visits and implementation of telehealth interventions provide some options, there still remains a need for patient-health care professional visits. A drive-through prenatal care model was developed in which pregnant women would remain in their automobiles while being assessed by the health care professional, thus reducing potential patient, health care professional, and staff exposure to COVID-19. Drive-through prenatal visits would include key elements that some institutions cannot perform by telehealth encounters, such as blood pressure measurements for evaluation for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, fetal heart rate assessment, and selected ultrasound-based measurements or observations, as well as face-to-face patient-health care professional interaction, thereby reducing patient anxiety resulting from the reduction in the number of planned clinic visits with an obstetric health care professional as well as fear of virus exposure in the clinic setting. We describe the rapid development of a drive-through prenatal care model that is projected to reduce the number of in-person clinic visits by 33% per patient compared with the traditional prenatal care paradigm, using equipment and supplies that most obstetric clinics in the United States can access.