Nearly 40 per cent of cases in which pregnant women are admitted to intensive care in New Zealand because of severe illness are potentially preventable, according to a University of Otago study.
Despite the figure being in line with other developed countries, lead author Bev Lawton said it was "a real wake-up call".
The study, which has been published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, found that out of 98 severe acute maternal morbidity (illness) cases, 38.8 per cent were potentially preventable. A further 36.7 per cent of cases were not preventable but improvement in care was needed.
The most common causes were blood loss and septicaemia, and the most frequent preventable factors were clinician related. These were most often a failure to recognise a woman's high-risk status and delayed or inappropriate treatment, said Dr Lawton, of the Women's Health Research Centre.
"This was about every part of the maternity care pathway so it was all people - it was obstetricians, it was midwives, it was primary care, it was emergency departments," she said.
