A Swedish register-based study exploring primary postpartum hemorrhage in 405 936 full term vaginal births between 2005 and 2015

Abstract

Birthing women in a Swedish contemporary setting are, despite efforts to improve care, still at risk of birth being complicated by postpartum haemorrhage. Primiparity, increasing maternal age and/or obesity are found to provoke an increased risk and the reasons for these findings need to be further investigated. However, grand multi-parity did not increase the risk for postpartum hemorrhage. Codes for diagnoses require correct documentation in the birth records: only when local statistics are sound and correctly reported can intrapartum care be improved, and the incidence of postpartum haemorrhage reduced.