Presented By: Suzanne Baird, MSN, RNC
July 2011

Critical care obstetrics is now a subspecialty of both medicine and nursing, with its own unique accompanying body of knowledge and clinical practice issues. The critically ill pregnant woman continues to present challenges to any critical care team. Continued development of this relatively new area of practice may be attributed to several factors the most important of which is the unique nature of the critical care obstetric population.

This program provides an overview of essential concepts related to care of the woman who becomes critically ill during pregnancy, birth or the puerperium. The inherent need for professional collaboration, communication and teamwork in a critical care setting is reinforced. Case examples are presented which illustrate application of critical care concepts to clinical practice. Finally, strategies are described to adequately prepare obstetric providers to provide quality care to critically ill pregnant women.

Objectives:

• Discuss current issues related to the critically ill pregnant woman.
• List the most common medical diagnoses that cause critical illness in pregnant women.
• Discuss collaboration between healthcare services/ agencies when a mother becomes critically ill during pregnancy, birth or the puerperium.