A scientific study published this Tuesday proposes a new way of treating postpartum hemorrhage, the main cause of maternal mortality in the world, which suffer every year 14 million women and causes 700,000 deaths, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.
The postpartum hemorrhage It is a complication in which the woman loses more than half a liter of blood in the 24 hours that follow delivery and causes death of a mother every six minutes somewhere in the world, particularly in poor countries.
The study, which involved 200,000 women in various countries, proposes a device simple and inexpensive way to objectively measure the amount of blood what is being lost, compared to the current method of visual inspection that tends to underestimate blood loss and can lead to a life-threatening delay in treatment.
At the same time, the investigationn -carried out through a collaboration of experts from the WHO and the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom)- proposes that the different stages of treatment for those cases they are administered together, instead of doing it sequentially and with breaks between one intervention and another.
It was observed that in this way the haemorrhages severe (loss of more than a liter of blood after childbirth) were reduced by 60% and with it the risk of death decreased.
“Time is of the essence when responding to postpartum hemorrhage, so interventions that eliminate delays in delivery diagnosis and treatment can revolutionize maternal health,” said trial leader Professor Arri Coomarasamy.
The new one recommendation of the WHO thus passes through a rapid and exact detection of the haemorrhage, which must be followed by an immediate and joint treatment -when indicated- that includes massages uterine tubes, medicines to contract the uterus and stop bleeding, and intravenous fluids.
With these indications it was also noted that the transfusion rate blood tests, which is of particular importance in low-income countries, where blood is a scarce and expensive commodity.