Better care needed for pregnant women with pre-eclampsia

Posted 30/03/2011

A recent report issued by CMACE has highlighted the fact that over 90% of women who died from pre-eclampsia between 2006 and 2008 in the UK had ‘substandard care’ and that 64% might not have died had their care been significantly better. The phrase used is “different treatment might have altered the outcome”.

The Eighth Report of the Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths “Saving Mothers’ Lives” was published earlier this month.

Rosamund Rhodes-Kemp, who heads the Ashtons Legal medical injury team, comments:

“The report showed that the overall number of maternal deaths in the UK has fallen recently, which is of course welcome news. When it comes to pre-eclampsia it seems that there is a need for substantial improvements in care, particularly since these statistics reflect only death as a result of pre-eclampsia and do not consider mothers-to-be who became seriously ill but survived. There is no reasonable excuse for health professionals failing to identify and treat hypertension during pregnancy.

The majority of birth-related claims that we handle are for children born with cerebral palsy but it seems likely that if appropriate action isn’t taken we may see an increasing proportion of families seeking our advice in relation to the negligent treatment of pre-eclampsia”.

The full report can be accessed at: