Magnesium sulphate is the drug of choice for the prevention and treatment of women with eclampsia. Regimens for administration of this drug have evolved over the years, but there is no clarity on the comparative benefits or harm of alternative regimens. This is an update of a review first published in 2010.
To assess if one magnesium sulphate regimen is better than another when used for the care of women with pre-eclampsia or eclampsia, or both, to reduce the risk of severe morbidity and mortality for the woman and her baby.
We searched Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth\'s Trials Register, ClinicalTrials.gov, the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (29 April 2022), and reference lists of retrieved studies.
We included randomised trials and cluster-randomised trials comparing different regimens for administration of magnesium sulphate used in women with pre-eclampsia or eclampsia, or both. Comparisons included different dose regimens, intramuscular versus intravenous route for maintenance therapy, and different durations of therapy. We excluded studies with quasi-random or cross-over designs. We included abstracts of conference proceedings if compliant with the trustworthiness assessment.
For this update, two review authors assessed trials for inclusion, performed risk of bias assessment, and extracted data. We checked data for accuracy. We assessed the certainty of the evidence using the GRADE approach.
For this update, a total of 16 trials (3020 women) met our inclusion criteria: four trials (409 women) compared regimens for women with eclampsia, and 12 trials (2611 women) compared regimens for women with pre-eclampsia. Most of the included trials had small sample sizes and were conducted in low- and middle-income countries. Eleven trials reported adequate randomisation and allocation concealment. Blinding of participants and clinicians was not possible in most trials. The included studies were for the most part at low risk of attrition and reporting bias. Treatment of women with eclampsia (four comparisons) One trial compared a loading dose-alone regimen with a loading dose plus maintenance dose regimen (80 women). It is uncertain whether either regimen has an effect on the risk of recurrence of convulsions or maternal death (very low-certainty evidence). One trial compared a lower-dose regimen with standard-dose regimen over 24 hours (72 women). It is uncertain whether either regimen has an effect on the risk of recurrence of convulsion, severe morbidity, perinatal death, or maternal death (very low-certainty evidence). One trial (137 women) compared intravenous (IV) versus standard intramuscular (IM) maintenance regimen. It is uncertain whether either route has an effect on recurrence of convulsions, death of the baby before discharge (stillbirth and neonatal death), or maternal death (very low-certainty evidence). One trial (120 women) compared a short maintenance regimen with a standard (24 hours after birth) maintenance regimen. It is uncertain whether the duration of the maintenance regimen has an effect on recurrence of convulsions, severe morbidity, or side effects such as nausea and respiratory failure. A short maintenance regimen may reduce the risk of flushing when compared to a standard 24 hours maintenance regimen (risk ratio (RR) 0.27, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.08 to 0.93; 1 trial, 120 women; low-certainty evidence). Many of our prespecified critical outcomes were not reported in the included trials. Prevention of eclampsia for women with pre-eclampsia (five comparisons) Two trials (462 women) compared loading dose alone with loading dose plus maintenance therapy. Low-certainty evidence suggests an uncertain effect with either regimen on the risk of eclampsia (RR 2.00, 95% CI 0.61 to 6.54; 2 trials, 462 women) or perinatal death (RR 0.50, 95% CI 0.19 to 1.36; 2 trials, 462 women). One small trial (17 women) compared an IV versus IM maintenance regimen for 24 hours. It is uncertain whether IV or IM maintenance regimen has an effect on eclampsia or stillbirth (very low-certainty evidence). Four trials (1713 women) compared short postpartum maintenance regimens with continuing for 24 hours after birth. Low-certainty evidence suggests there may be a wide range of benefit or harm between groups regarding eclampsia (RR 1.99, 95% CI 0.18 to 21.87; 4 trials, 1713 women). Low-certainty evidence suggests there may be little or no effect on severe morbidity (RR 0.96, 95% CI 0.71 to 1.29; 2 trials, 1233 women) or side effects such as respiratory depression (RR 0.80, 95% CI 0.25 to 2.61; 2 trials, 1424 women). Three trials (185 women) compared a higher-dose maintenance regimen versus a lower-dose maintenance regimen. It is uncertain whether either regimen has an effect on eclampsia (very low-certainty evidence). Low-certainty evidence suggests that a higher-dose maintenance regimen has little or no effect on side effects when compared to a lower-dose regimen (RR 0.79, 95% CI 0.61 to 1.01; 1 trial 62 women). One trial (200 women) compared a maintenance regimen by continuous infusion versus a serial IV bolus regimen. It is uncertain whether the duration of the maintenance regimen has an effect on eclampsia, side effects, perinatal death, maternal death, or other neonatal morbidity (very low-certainty evidence). Many of our prespecified critical outcomes were not reported in the included trials.
Despite the number of trials evaluating various magnesium sulphate regimens for eclampsia prophylaxis and treatment, there is still no compelling evidence that one particular regimen is more effective than another. Well-designed randomised controlled trials are needed to answer this question.

Accurate reporting of maternal mortality is essential for effective health policy planning and achieving maternal death reduction in Sustainable Development Goals Target 3 (SDGs). This study aimed to identify gaps between facility-based maternal death reviews and the hospital Health Management Information System (HMIS) reports in Mzimba South District, Malawi from July 2013 to June 2018. A retrospective hospital-based medical record review was conducted to identify maternal deaths among women aged 15 to 49 years with all death causes. Out of 447 mortality records identified from the hospital wards, 89 maternal mortality cases were identified by the study review compared to 83 cases in the HMIS report. The HMIS report showed an underreporting rate of 6.7% (6/89) and a misclassification rate of 13.5% (12/89) within five years. These findings highlight the need for establishing mechanisms for the verification and monitoring of maternal mortality data reporting in health facilities. Improving the quality of maternal death reporting could help inform evidence-based interventions and policies that address the root causes of maternal mortality, and achieve SDGs in Malawi.

China had achieved impressive success in improving maternal health, while the progress of reducing maternal mortality ratio (MMR) varied across regions. Some studies had reported maternal mortality from national or provincial perspective, but researches of the MMR on long-term period at the city or county level rare been reported. Shenzhen has experienced significant socioeconomic and health changes, reflecting the typical development of China\'s coastal city. This study mainly introduced the levels and trends of maternal death in Baoan district, Shenzhen from 1999 to 2022.
Maternal mortality data were extracted from registration forms and the Shenzhen Maternal and Child Health Management System. Linear-by-Linear Association tests were used to evaluate the trends of MMR among different groups. The study periods were divided into three stages by 8-year interval and χ2 test or Fisher\'s test was used to test the difference in maternal deaths of different periods.
During 1999-2022, a total of 137 maternal deaths occurred in Baoan, the overall MMR was 15.91 per 100,000 live births, declined by 89.31% with an annualized rate of 9.26%. The MMR declined by 68.15% in migrant population, with an annualized rate of 5.07%, faster than that in permanent population (48.73%, 2.86%). The MMR due to direct and indirect obstetric causes shown a downward trend (P<0.001) and the gap between them narrowed to 14.29% during 2015-2022. The major causes of maternal deaths were obstetric hemorrhage (4.41 per 100,000 live births), amniotic fluid embolism (3.37 per 100,000 live births), medical complications (2.44 per 100,000 live births) and pregnancy-induced hypertension (1.97 per 100,000 live births), the MMR due to the above causes all shown decreasing trends (P < 0.01), pregnancy-induced hypertension became the leading cause of deaths during 2015-2022. The constituent ratio of maternal deaths with advanced age significantly increased by 57.78% in 2015-2022 compared with in 1999-2006.
Baoan district had made encouraging progress in improving maternal survival, especially in migrant population. To further reduce the MMR, strengthening professional training to improve the capacity of obstetricians and physicians, increasing the awareness and ability of self-help health care among elderly pregnant women were in urgent need.

To determine the main clinical and demographic outcomes related to Pulmonary Hypertension (PH) and adverse obstetric and fetal/neonatal outcomes.
This study retrospectively analyzed the medical record data of 154 patients with PH who were admitted to the Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University between January 2011 and December 2020.
According to the severity of elevated Pulmonary Artery Systolic Pressure (PASP), 82 women (53.2%) were included in the mild PH group, 34 (22.1%) were included in the moderate PH group, and 38 (24.7%) were included in the severe PH group. There were significant differences in the incidence of heart failure, premature delivery, Very-Low-Birth-Weight (VLBW) infants, and Small-for-Gestational-Age (SGA) infants among the three PH groups (p < 0.05). Five (3.2%) women died within 7-days after delivery, 7 (4.5%) fetuses died in utero, and 3 (1.9%) neonates died. The authors found that PASP was an independent risk factor for maternal mortality. After adjustment for age, gestational weeks, systolic blood pressure, Body Mass Index (BMI), mode of delivery, and anesthesia, the risk of maternal mortality in the severe PH group was 20.21 times higher than that in the mild-moderate PH group (OR = 21.21 [95% CI 1.7∼264.17]), p < 0.05. All 131 (85.1%) patients were followed up for 12 months postpartum.
The authors found that the risk of maternal mortality in the severe PH group was significantly higher than that in the mild-moderate group, highlighting the importance of pulmonary artery pressure screening before pregnancy, early advice on contraception, and multidisciplinary care.

This study aimed to depict the characteristics, injury outcomes, and payment of obstetric malpractice lawsuits to better understand the medicolegal burden in obstetrics and categorize the causes of obstetric malpractice lawsuits using The National Health Service Litigation Authority coding taxonomy for further quality improvement in maternity care.
We reviewed and retrieved key information on court records of legal trials from China Judgment Online between 2013 and 2021.
A total of 3441 obstetric malpractice lawsuits successfully claimed were reviewed in this study, with a total indemnity payment of $139,875,375. After peaking in 2017, the number of obstetric malpractice claims begins to decline. Of the 2424 hospitals that were sued, 8.3% (201/2424) were referred to as \"repeat defendant\" because they were involved in multiple lawsuits. Death and injury were the outcomes in 53.4% and 46.6% of the cases, respectively. The most common outcome type was neonatal death, which made up 29.8% of all cases. The median indemnity payment for death was higher compared with injury ( P < 0.05). In terms of detailed injury outcomes, the major neonatal injury had higher median indemnity payments than neonatal death and fetal death ( P < 0.05). The median indemnity payment of the major maternal injury was higher than that of maternal death ( P < 0.05). The leading causes of obstetric malpractice were the management of birth complications and adverse events (23.3%), management of labor (14.4%), career decision making (13.7%), fetal surveillance (11.0%), and cesarean section management (9.5%). The cause for 8.7% of cases was high payment (≥$100, 000). As indicated by the results of the multivariate analysis, the hospitals in the midland of China (odds ratio [OR], 0.476; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.348-0.651), the hospitals in the west of China (OR, 0.523; 95% CI, 0.357-0.767), and the secondary hospitals (OR, 0.587; 95% CI, 0.356-0.967) had lower risks of high payment. Hospitals with ultimate liability (OR, 9.695; 95% CI, 4.072-23.803), full liability (OR, 16.442; 95% CI, 6.231-43.391), major neonatal injury (OR, 12.326; 95% CI, 5.836-26.033), major maternal injury (OR, 20.885; 95% CI, 7.929-55.011), maternal death (OR, 18.783; 95% CI, 8.887-39.697), maternal death with child injury (OR, 54.682; 95% CI, 10.900-274.319), maternal injury with child death (OR, 6.935; 95% CI, 2.773-17.344), and deaths of both mother and child (OR, 12.770; 95% CI, 5.136-31.754) had higher risks of high payment. In the causative domain, only anesthetics had a higher risk of high payment (OR, 5.605; 95% CI, 1.347-23.320), but anesthetic-related lawsuits made up just 1.4% of all cases.
The healthcare systems had to pay a significant amount as a result of obstetric malpractice lawsuits. Greater efforts are required to minimize serious injury outcomes and improve obstetric quality in the risky domains.

Reducing maternal mortality is a global objective. The maternal mortality ratio (MMR) is low in Hong Kong, China, but there has been no local confidential enquiry into maternal death, and underreporting is likely.
To determine the causes and timing of maternal death in Hong Kong and identify deaths and their causes that were missed by the Hong Kong vital statistics database.
This cross-sectional study was conducted among all 8 public maternity hospitals in Hong Kong. Maternal deaths were identified using prespecified search criteria, including a registered delivery episode between 2000 to 2019 and a registered death episode within 365 days after delivery. Cases as reported by the vital statistics were then compared with the deaths found in the hospital-based cohort. Data were analyzed from June to July 2022.
The outcomes of interest were maternal mortality, defined as death during pregnancy or within 42 days after ending the pregnancy, and late maternal death, defined as death more than 42 days but less than 1 year after end of the pregnancy.
A total of 173 maternal deaths (median [IQR] age at childbirth, 33 [29-36] years) were found, including 74 maternal mortality events (45 direct deaths and 29 indirect deaths) and 99 late maternal deaths. Of 173 maternal deaths, 66 women (38.2%) of individuals had preexisting medical conditions. For maternal mortality, the MMR ranged from 1.63 to 16.78 deaths per 100 000 live births. Suicide was the leading cause of direct death (15 of 45 deaths [33.3%]). Stroke and cancer deaths were the most common causes of indirect death (8 of 29 deaths [27.6%] each). A total of 63 individuals (85.1%) died during the postpartum period. In the theme-based approach analysis, the leading causes of death were suicide (15 of 74 deaths [20.3%]) and hypertensive disorders (10 of 74 deaths [13.5%]). The vital statistics in Hong Kong missed 67 maternal mortality events (90.5%). All suicides and amniotic fluid embolisms, 90.0% of hypertensive disorders, 50.0% of obstetric hemorrhages, and 96.6% of indirect deaths were missed by the vital statistics. The late maternal death ratio ranged from 0 to 16.36 deaths per 100 000 live births. The leading causes of late maternal death were cancer (40 of 99 deaths [40.4%]) and suicide (22 of 99 deaths [22.2%]).
In this cross-sectional study of maternal mortality in Hong Kong, suicide and hypertensive disorder were the dominant causes of death. The current vital statistics methods were unable to capture most of the maternal mortality events found in this hospital-based cohort. Adding a pregnancy checkbox to death certificates and setting up a confidential enquiry into maternal death could be possible solutions to reveal the hidden deaths.

Postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) is a major cause of maternal morbidity, and oxytocin is the first-line uterotonic agent for PPH prevention. Clinical findings have reported carbetocin to reduce PPH risk without increasing risk of important side effects. Hong Kong is a low PPH burden and high-resource city in China. We aimed to examine the cost-effectiveness of PPH prevention with carbetocin from the perspective of Hong Kong public healthcare provider.
A decision-analytic model was developed to simulate clinical and economic outcomes of carbetocin and oxytocin for PPH prevention in a hypothetical cohort of women at the third stage of labor following vaginal birth or Caesarean section (C-section). The model inputs were retrieved from literature and public data. Base-case analysis and sensitivity analysis were performed. The model time horizon was the postpartum hospitalization period. Primary model outcomes included PPH-related direct medical cost, PPH, hysterectomy, maternal death, and quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) loss.
In base-case analysis, carbetocin (versus oxytocin) reduced PPH-related cost (by USD29 per birth), PPH ≥500 mL and ≥1,500 mL (by 13.7 and 1.9 per 1,000 births), hysterectomy (by 0.15 per 1,000 births), maternal death (by 0.02 per 1,000 births), and saved 0.00059 QALY per birth. Relative risk of PPH ≥500 mL with carbetocin versus oxytocin, and proportion of child births by C-section were two influential parameters identified in deterministic sensitivity analysis. In probabilistic sensitivity analysis, carbetocin was accepted as cost-effective in >99.7% of the 10,000 Monte Carlo simulations at a willingness-to-pay threshold of zero USD/QALY.
PPH prevention with carbetocin appeared to reduce major unfavorable outcomes, and save cost and QALYs.

BACKGROUND: Maternal mortality is still a major challenge for health systems, while severe maternal complications are the primary causes of maternal death. Our study aimed to determine whether severe maternal morbidity is effectively predicted by a newly proposed Modified Obstetric Early Warning Score (MOEWS) in the setting of an obstetric intensive care unit (ICU).
METHODS: A retrospective study of pregnant women admitted in the ICU from August 2019 to August 2020 was conducted. MOEWS was calculated 24 h before and 24 h after admission in the ICU, and the highest score was taken as the final value. For women directly admitted from the emergency department, the worst value before admission was collected. The aggregate performance of MOEWS in predicting critical illness in pregnant women was evaluated and finally compared with that of the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score.
RESULTS: A total of 352 pregnant women were enrolled; 290 women (82.4%) with severe maternal morbidity were identified and two of them died (0.6%). The MOEWSs of women with serious obstetric complications were significantly higher than those of women without serious obstetric complications [8(6, 10) vs. 4(2, 4.25), z = -10.347, P < 0.001]. MOEWSs of 24 h after ICU admission had higher sensitivity, specificity and AUROC than MOEWSs of 24 h before ICU admission. When combining the two MOEWSs, sensitivity of MOEWS was 99.3% (95% CI: 98-100), specificity 75.8% (95% CI: 63-86), positive predictive value (PPV) 95.1% (95% CI: 92-97) and negative predictive value (NPV) 95.9% (95% CI: 86-100). The areas under the receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves of MOEWS were 0.92 (95% CI: 0.88-0.96) and 0.70 (95% CI: 0.63-0.76) of the APACHE II score.
CONCLUSIONS: The newly proposed MOEWS has an excellent ability to identify critically ill women early and is more effective than APACHE II. It will be a valuable tool for discriminating severe maternal morbidity and ultimately improve maternal health.

Understanding the trends and causes to the burden of maternal deaths is a key requirement to further reduce the maternal mortality ratio (MMR), and devise targeted intervention policy. We aimed to evaluate the spatiotemporal trends of MMRs and cause patterns across the 34 provinces of China during 1990-2017.
Using data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017, we calculated the levels and trends of total maternal deaths and MMR due to ten different causes through Bayesian multivariable regression model for pregnancies aged 10-54 years, and assessed the age and regional distribution over time.
China has experienced fast decline in MMR, dropped from 95.2 (87.8-102.3) in 1990 to 13.6 (12.5-15.0) in 2017, with an annualised rate of decline of 7.0%. In 1990, the range of MMRs in mainland China was 31.1 in Shanghai, to 323.4 in Tibet. Almost all provinces showed remarkable decline in the last two decades. However, spatial heterogeneity in levels and trends still existed. The annualised rate of decline across provinces from 1990 to 2017 ranged from 0.54% to 10.14%. Decline accelerated between 2005 and 2017 compared with between 1990 and 2005. In 2017, the lowest MMR was 4.2 in Zhejiang; the highest was still in Tibet, but had fallen to 82.7, dropped by 74.4%. MMR was highest in the 40-49 years age group in both 1990 and 2017. In 2017, haemorrhage and hypertensive disorders were the leading two specific causes for maternal deaths.
MMRs have declined rapidly and universally across the provinces of China. Setting of associated interventions in the future will need careful consideration of provinces that still have MMR significantly higher than the national mean level.

UNASSIGNED: Previous studies have suggested that pregnant women with pulmonary hypertension (PH) have high maternal mortality. However, indexes or factors that can predict maternal death are lacking.
UNASSIGNED: We retrospectively reviewed pregnant women with PH admitted for delivery from 2012 to 2020 and followed them for over 6 months. The patients were divided into two groups according to 10-day survival status after delivery. Predictive models and predictors for maternal death were identified using four machine learning algorithms: naïve Bayes, random forest, gradient boosting decision tree (GBDT), and support vector machine.
UNASSIGNED: A total of 299 patients were included. The most frequent PH classifications were Group 1 PH (73.9%) and Group 2 PH (23.7%). The mortality within 10 days after delivery was 9.4% and higher in Group 1 PH than in the other PH groups (11.7 vs. 2.6%, P = 0.016). We identified 17 predictors, each with a P-value < 0.05 by univariable analysis, that were associated with an increased risk of death, and the most notable were pulmonary artery systolic pressure (PASP), platelet count, red cell distribution width, N-terminal brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), and albumin (all P < 0.01). Four prediction models were established using the candidate variables, and the GBDT model showed the best performance (F1-score = 66.7%, area under the curve = 0.93). Feature importance showed that the three most important predictors were NT-proBNP, PASP, and albumin.
UNASSIGNED: Mortality remained high, particularly in Group 1 PH. Our study shows that NT-proBNP, PASP, and albumin are the most important predictors of maternal death in the GBDT model. These findings may help clinicians provide better advice regarding fertility for women with PH.