Multidisciplinary care results in similar maternal and perinatal mortality rates for women with and without SCD in a low-resource setting.

In Africa, the maternal mortality rate in sickle cell disease (SCD) is ~10%. Our team previously demonstrated an 89% decrease in mortality rate in a before-and-after feasibility study among women with SCD living in low-resource setting in Ghana. In the same cohort including additional participants with and without SCD, we used a prospective cohort design to test the hypothesis that implementing a multidisciplinary care team for pregnant women with SCD in low-resource setting will result in similar maternal and perinatal mortality rates compared to women without SCD. We prospectively enrolled pregnant women with and without SCD or trait and followed them up for 6-week postpartum. We tested the newborns of mothers with SCD for SCD. We recruited age and parity matched pregnant women without SCD or trait as the comparison group. Maternal and perinatal mortality rates were the primary outcomes. A total of 149 pregnant women with SCD (HbSS, 54; HbSC, 95) and 117 pregnant women without SCD or trait were included in the analysis. Post-intervention, maternal mortality rates were 1.3% and 0.9% in women with and without SCD, respectively (P = 1.00); the perinatal mortality rates were 7.4% and 3.4% for women with and without SCD, respectively (P = 0.164). Among the mothers with SCD, ~15% of newborns had SCD. Multidisciplinary care of pregnant women with SCD may reduce maternal and perinatal mortality rates to similar levels in pregnant women without SCD in low-resource settings. Newborns of mothers with SCD have a high rate of SCD.

Implementation of multidisciplinary care reduces maternal mortality in women with sickle cell disease living in low-resource setting.

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is associated with adverse pregnancy outcome. In women with SCD living in low-resource settings, pregnancy is associated with significantly increased maternal and perinatal mortality rates. We tested the hypothesis that implementing a multidisciplinary obstetric and hematology care team in a low-resource setting would significantly reduce maternal and perinatal mortality rates. We conducted a before-and-after study, at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, Ghana, to evaluate the effect of a multidisciplinary obstetric-hematology care team for women with SCD in a combined SCD-Obstetric Clinic. The pre-intervention period was assessed through a retrospective chart review to identify every death and the post-intervention period was assessed prospectively. Interventions consisted of joint obstetrician and hematologist outpatient and acute inpatient reviews, close maternal and fetal surveillance, and simple protocols for management of acute chest syndrome and acute pain episodes. Primary outcomes included maternal and perinatal mortality rates before and after the study period. A total of 158 and 90 pregnant women with SCD were evaluated in the pre- and post- intervention periods, respectively. The maternal mortality rate decreased from 10 791 per 100 000 live births at pre-intervention to 1176 per 100 000 at post-intervention, representing a risk reduction of 89.1% (P = 0.007). Perinatal mortality decreased from 60.8 per 1000 total births at pre-intervention to 23.0 per 1000 at post-intervention, representing a risk reduction of 62.2% (P = 0.20). A multidisciplinary obstetric and hematology team approach can dramatically reduce maternal and perinatal mortality in a low-resource setting.