Obstetric life support.

The death of a woman during pregnancy is devastating. Although the incidence of maternal cardiac arrest is increasing, it continues to be a comparatively rare event. Obstetric healthcare providers may go through their entire career without participating in a maternal cardiac resuscitation. Concern has been raised that when an arrest does occur in the obstetric unit, providers who are trained in life support skills at 2-year intervals are ill equipped to provide the best possible care. The quality of resuscitation skills provided during cardiopulmonary arrest of inpatients often may be poor, and knowledge of critical steps to be followed during resuscitation may not be retained after life support training. The Obstetric Life Support (ObLS) training program is a method of obstetric nursing and medical staff training that is relevant, comprehensive, and cost-effective. It takes into consideration both the care needs of the obstetric patient and the adult learning needs of providers. The ObLS program brings obstetric nurses, obstetricians, and anesthesiologists together in multidisciplinary team training that is crucial to developing efficient emergency response.

Deficits in the provision of cardiopulmonary resuscitation during simulated obstetric crises.

OBJECTIVE: Previous work suggests the potential for suboptimal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in the parturient but did not directly assess actual performance. STUDY DESIGN: We evaluated 18 videotaped simulations of maternal amniotic fluid embolus and resultant cardiac arrest. A checklist containing 10 current American Heart Association recommendations for advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) in obstetric patients was utilized. We evaluated which tasks were completed correctly and the time required to perform key actions. RESULTS: Proper compressions were delivered by our teams 56% of the time and ventilations 50% of the time. Critical interventions such as left uterine displacement and placing a firm back support prior to compressions were frequently neglected (in 44% and 22% of cases, respectively). The mean +/- SD overall composite score for the tasks was 45 +/- 12% (range, 20-60%). The neonatal team was called in a median (interquartile range) of 1:42 (0:44-2:18) minutes:seconds; 15 of 18 (83%) teams called only after the patient was completely unresponsive. Fifty percent of teams did not provide basic information to the neonatal teams as required by neonatal resuscitation provider guidelines. CONCLUSION: Multiple deficits were noted in the provision of CPR to parturients during simulated arrests, despite current ACLS certification for all participants. Current requirements for ACLS certification and training for obstetric staff may require revision.