AUSTIN, Texas — Ascension Seton Medical Center doctors deliver more than 4,000 babies every year, and to protect the mothers giving birth, they adopted the Texas AIM program in 2018.
Ascension Seton doctors said the Texas AIM program has helped the pregnant mothers who come to their hospital.
"I think it's also really important for pregnant women to know about their own risks entering a pregnancy and that's, you know, on the responsibility of both the provider and the patient," said Dr. Jeny Ghartey, Maternal Medical Director, OB/GYN, Ascension Seton Medical Center.
Ghatery's been a practicing OBGYN since 2008 and said, in recent years, the United States is among the highest resource-rich countries with the highest mortality rate. The most recent report they have is from 2012.
"40% of deaths that were related to pregnancy, almost 80% of them had some chance of being prevented, which is startling. We just have to do better," said Ghatery.
Ascension Seton Medical Center is trying to change those numbers with Texas AIM. More than 200 hospitals across Texas use the program, including Ascension Seton.
"One of the things that we recognized that we wanted to implement first was the OB hemorrhage protocol, the bundle, because postpartum hemorrhage was one of the leading causes of maternal morbidity and mortality," said Dr. Amy Papst, Chief Medical Officer, Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin.
Basically, the "bundle" helps doctors figure out if a mother is at risk of losing a lot of blood when giving birth.
"It just allows us to be better prepared to act quicker," said Dr. Papst.
Another big change is how doctors measure blood loss.
"What quantitatively measuring the blood loss does is it just makes us more aware and so the sooner that we can initiate treatment with blood transfusions for example," said Ghatery.
These are only a few adjustments doctors made over the last couple of years to ultimately help mothers and their babies who come through Texas hospitals.
"As women become more and more aware, they can seek care in settings where the appropriate level of care can be provided," said Ghatery.
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