30. Obstetric emergencies

Emergencies can occur during pregnancy, childbirth or postpartum, and they can endanger the health of both mothers and their babies. This may result in maternal and/or perinatal mortality or severe morbidity. Adequate management is essential and can substantially improve outcomes for both mother and child. The structured method for assessing critically ill patients consists of a primary and secondary survey. The primary survey follows the ABCDE approach, which is based on the ‘treat first what kills first’ principle. This uniform approach enables the systematic and timely assessment of potential life-threatening conditions during an emergency and facilitates communication between different caregivers. In this chapter, we describe several obstetric emergencies and provide a structured proposal for the management of these emergencies.