Researchers develop pregnancy complication rating system to find causes

By using patient discharge data, National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded researchers created a new system for classifying life-threatening complications associated with childbirth in hopes other researches can use what's learned to reduce rising levels of maternal morbidity.

Patient discharge data from different hospitals and groups of patients will be used to compare rates of severe maternal morbidity, the National Institutes of Health reported.

The rising rates of these life-threatening complications has shown to be worse among racial and ethnic minorities. Researchers previously had no way to compare rates between different groups with different underlying health issues, NIH reported.

The study authors believe the scoring system they devised has advantages over methods currently in use. They also told NIH it uses readily available patient discharge data instead of electronic health records.

Dr. Stephanie Leonard, with the Stanford University School of Medicine, led the study. Her team used data for 919,546 live births from 2016 to 2017 in California.

The system they developed evaluates the risk of severe birth complications separately from blood transfusion risks, categories used by many public health professionals.