Pre-eclampsia is a disorder of pregnancy in which there is high blood pressure and either large amounts of protein in the urine or other organ dysfunction. Pre-eclampsia is routinely screened for during prenatal care. Onset may be before, during, or rarely, after delivery. Around one per cent of women with eclampsia die. Maternal complications
A puerperal disorder or postpartum disorder is a complication which presents primarily during the puerperium, or postpartum period. The postpartum period can be divided into three distinct stages; the initial or acute phase, six to 12 hours after childbirth; subacute postpartum period, which lasts two to six weeks, and the delayed postpartum period, which can last up to six months. In the subacute postpartum period, 87% to 94% of women report at least one health problem. Long-term health problems (persisting after the delayed postpartum period) are reported by 31 per cent of women. Postpartum bleeding
According to the WHO, hemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal death worldwide accounting for approximately 27.1% of maternal deaths. Within maternal deaths due to hemorrhage, two-thirds are caused by postpartum hemorrhage. The causes of postpartum hemorrhage can be separated into four main categories: Tone, Trauma, Tissue, and Thrombin. Tone represents uterine atony, the failure of the uterus to contract adequately following delivery. Trauma includes lacerations or uterine rupture. Tissue includes conditions that can lead to a retained placenta. Thrombin, which is a molecule used in the human body’s blood clotting system, represents all coagulopathies.
Some fathers have begun to hold their newborns skin to skin; the new baby is familiar with the fathers voice and it is believed that contact with the father helps the infant to stabilise and promotes father to infant bonding. Looking at recent studies, a 2019 review found that the level of oxytocin was found to increase not only in mothers who had experienced early skin to skin attachment with their infants but in the fathers as well, suggesting a neurobiological connection. If the infants mother had a caesarean birth, the father can hold their baby in skin-to-skin contact while the mother recovers from the anaesthetic. Hospitals
Historically, most women gave birth at home without emergency medical care available. In the early days of hospitalisation of childbirth, a 17th-century maternity ward in Paris was incredibly congested, with up to five pregnant women sharing one bed. At this hospital, one in five women died during the birthing process. At the onset of the Industrial Revolution, giving birth at home became more difficult due to congested living spaces and dirty living conditions. That drove urban and lower-class women to newly available hospitals, while wealthy and middle-class women continued to labour at home. Consequently, wealthier women experienced lower maternal mortality rates than those of a lower social class. Throughout the 1900s, there was an increasing availability of hospitals, and more women began going into the hospital for labour and delivery. In the United States, 5% of women gave birth in hospitals in 1900.