Abstract
Objective
To determine the rate, maternal characteristics, timing, and indicators of severe maternal morbidity (SMM) that occurs at postpartum readmission.
Study design
Women with a birth in California during 2008–2012 were included in the analysis. Readmissions up to 42 days after delivery were investigated. SMM was defined as presence of any of the 21 indicators defined by ICD-9 codes.
Results
Among 2,413,943 women with a birth, SMM at readmission occurred in 4229 women. Of all SMM, 12.1% occurred at readmission. Over half (53.5%) of the readmissions with SMM occurred within the first week after delivery hospitalization. The most common indicators of SMM were blood transfusion, sepsis, and pulmonary edema/acute heart failure.
Conclusion
Twelve percent of SMM was identified at readmission with the majority occurring within 1 week after discharge from delivery hospitalization. Because early readmission may reflect lack of discharge readiness, there may be opportunities to improve care.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Callaghan WM, Creanga AA, Kuklina EV. Severe maternal morbidity among delivery and postpartum hospitalizations in the United States. Obstet Gynecol. 2012;120:1029–36.
Creanga AA, Berg CJ, Syverson C, Seed K, Bruce FC, Callaghan WM. Pregnancy-related mortality in the United States, 2006-2010. Obstet Gynecol. 2015;125:5–12.
MacDorman MF, Declercq E, Cabral H, Morton C. Recent Increases in the U.S. Maternal Mortality Rate: Disentangling Trends From Measurement Issues. Obstet Gynecol. 2016;128:447–55.
D’Alton ME. Where is the “M” in maternal-fetal medicine? Obstet Gynecol. 2010;116:1401–4.
Grobman WA, Bailit JL, Rice MM, Wapner RJ, Reddy UM, Varner MW, et al. Frequency of and factors associated with severe maternal morbidity. Obstet Gynecol. 2014;123:804–10.
Harvey EM, Ahmed S, Manning SE, Diop H, Argani C, Strobino DM. Severe maternal morbidity at delivery and risk of hospital encounters within 6 weeks and 1 year postpartum. J Womens Health. 2018;27:140–7.
Lyndon A, Lee HC, Gilbert WM, Gould JB, Lee KA. Maternal morbidity during childbirth hospitalization in California. J Matern Fetal Neonatal Med. 2012;25:2529–35.
CDC. Severe maternal morbidity in the United States. 2017. https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/maternalinfanthealth/severematernalmorbidity.html#anchor_SMM. Accessed 20 Dec 2018.
Council on Patient Safety in Women’s Health Care. 2018. https://safehealthcareforeverywoman.org/aim-data/. Accessed 20 Dec 2018.
Belfort MA, Clark SL, Saade GR, Kleja K, Dildy GA, Teelkien VR, et al. Hospital readmission after delivery: evidence for an increased incidence of nonurogenital infection in the immediate postpartum period. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2010;202:35.e1–7.
Clapp MA, Little SE, Zheng J, Robinson JN. A multi-state analysis of postpartum readmissions in the United States. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2016;215:113.e1–10.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher’s note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary information
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Girsen, A.I., Sie, L., Carmichael, S.L. et al. Rate and causes of severe maternal morbidity at readmission: California births in 2008–2012. J Perinatol 40, 25–29 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-019-0481-z
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-019-0481-z
This article is cited by
-
The effect of severe maternal morbidity on infant costs and lengths of stay
Journal of Perinatology (2022)