PROVIDENCE – While different types of birthing environments, ranging from home births to birthing centers to small community hospitals to academic medical centers, continue to be considered by women around Rhode Island and across the country, recent research by a trio of Women & Infants experts indicated that even low-risk pregnancies have surprisingly high risks of complications. The authors of the new study were Valery Danilack, Anthony Nunes, and Dr. Maureen Phipps, all of Women & Infants Hospital.
Their analysis indicated that 29 percent of pregnancies identified as low-risk had an unexpected complication that required non-routine obstetric or neonatal care.
The paper emphasized the challenge prospective mothers face in identifying the appropriate facility in which to give birth, one that corresponds to their own identified level of risk.
“Determining appropriate sites of care for any type of medical issue assumes successful matching of patient risks to facility capabilities and resources,” an excerpt from the paper, lead authored by Phipps, reads. “In obstetrics, predicting patients who will have a need for additional resources beyond routine obstetric and neonatal care is difficult. Women without prenatal risk factors and their newborns may experience unexpected complications during delivery or postpartum.”
The paper was published in The American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
