Beschreibung:
<jats:sec>
<jats:title>INTRODUCTION:</jats:title>
<jats:p>To reduce maternal mortality, it is critical to identify women at increased risk of postpartum complications.</jats:p>
</jats:sec>
<jats:sec>
<jats:title>METHODS:</jats:title>
<jats:p>We conducted a retrospective cohort study of mothers delivering liveborn infants at North Carolina Women's Hospital between 7/1/2014 and 6/30/2016. NICU mothers were defined as women with ≥1 infant admitted to the Neonatal Critical Care Unit. We used data from the UNC Health System Epic Electronic Medical Record to ascertain hospital visits between discharge and 12 weeks postpartum. We used Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health (AIM) criteria to define postpartum severe maternal morbidity (PSMM). We used Fisher's exact tests to compare rates of PSMM among mothers of well babies (MWB), compared with NICU mothers.</jats:p>
</jats:sec>
<jats:sec>
<jats:title>RESULTS:</jats:title>
<jats:p>Among 6849 women in our cohort, there were 488 emergency department visits, 239 OB triage visits, 62 hospitalizations for observation, and 171 inpatient admissions at the North Carolina Women's Hospital within the first 12 weeks postpartum. There were no postpartum maternal deaths. NICU mothers were more likely to have at least one hospital visit than MWB (173/1081, 15.6% vs. 517/5768, 9.0%, p<.0001). PSMM by AIM criteria was experienced by 33/6849 women (0.48%). NICU mothers were more likely to experience SMM than MWB (1.2% vs. 0.38%, Fisher's Exact p = 0.01, OR 2.69, 95% CI 1.30-5.56).</jats:p>
</jats:sec>
<jats:sec>
<jats:title>CONCLUSION:</jats:title>
<jats:p>About 0.5% of mothers were readmitted with PSMM. Actual rates of PSMM are likely higher, as we only ascertained encounters within the UNC Health System. The risk of PSMM was higher among NICU mothers than among mothers of well babies.</jats:p>
</jats:sec>