Recommendations made for anaesthetic care during childbirth

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) has published a report into anaesthetic care as part of its national quality improvement programme into stillbirths, neonatal deaths and brain injuries that occur during childbirth.

The Each Baby Counts report found that there were no babies for whom anaesthetic problems were thought to be the sole contributor to their outcome. A number of recommendations are proposed, however, including that anaesthetists should always be informed of the degree of urgency of delivery and, as an aid to communication, the classification of urgency of caesarean section should be used for all operative deliveries, vaginal as well as abdominal.

It is also recommended that all local reviews conducted into adverse neonatal outcomes should, where relevant, involve an obstetric anaesthetist and include a review of the detailed anaesthetic record.

Read the full report here.