The calculator helps clinicians flag women who are at a higher risk for cesarean delivery, allowing them to make key clinical decisions earlier in labor..
For the study, researchers assessed maternal deaths at a hospital one year before using the calculator and compared it to the number of deaths one year after.
There were 1,610 women included in the study, with 788 in the pre-implementation group and 822 in the post-implementation group.
After using the calculator, maternal deaths decreased overall.
In women with a calculated cesarean delivery risk of less than 20 percent, the cesarean delivery rate decreased from 12.8 percent pre-implementation to 6.4 post-implementation. Maternal death rates decreased from 12.8 percent to 6.8 percent, pre-and post-implementation respectively.
Among women with a calculated cesarean delivery risk of 60 percent or higher, maternal death rates dropped from 27.8 percent pre-implementation to 14 percent post-implementation.
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