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Obstetric Hemorrhage: Importance to Patients and Families

By following the recommended strategies for active management of the third stage of labour, a hospital team can reduce the incidence of harm and/or death from obstetrical hemorrhage.

Patient Story

Melissa Price, the patient representative on the hemorrhage task force, had a late postpartum hemorrhage. Melissa ended up with a hysterectomy and about 12 units of blood transfused. While in the Emergency Department, Melissa recalls asking the nurses how they could tell how much blood she was losing – the nurses never weighed the blood, and dumped it from a bed pan into a portable toilet. After Melissa's obstetrician got the bleeding to stop, she was left alone behind a curtain and checked on infrequently. Melissa recalls the feeling sheer panic when the bleeding started up again with 'enormous clots'… "I screamed and I will never forget the look on the nurse's face when she lifted up that blanket. After that, ER staff was running around everywhere. Rushing to call my OB, rushing to get an OR suite, rushing to figure out how to get my insulin pump turned off. I just kept thinking, God give them more time. They need more time to save me." (Lyndon et al. 2015).

 

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Obstetric Hemorrhage

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Obstetric Hemorrhage

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