Maternal critical care: 'one small step for woman, one giant leap for womankind'.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study is to outline the challenges of looking after women who either become or are at a risk of becoming critically ill during pregnancy.


RESULTS
In recent years, there has been an increased demand in the need for maternal critical care. This is partly due to women with complex medical conditions surviving to child-bearing age, coupled with improvements in foetal medicine resulting in more high-risk pregnancies reaching term.


CONCLUSIONS
In this review, we identify the need for maternal critical care, explore different models of its provision and outline possible benefits and barriers to its future implementation.
aDepartment of Anaesthesiology bDepartment of Intensive Care Medicine, Queen's Hospital, BHR NHS Trust, Romford cHonorary Senior Clinical Lecturer, Queen Mary University of London, UK.
Vinod
V
Patil
Suyogi
S
Jigajinni
Dhuleep S
DS
Wijayatilake
D000328:Adult; D003422:Critical Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D000068097:Maternal Health; D009774:Obstetrics / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends*; D011247:Pregnancy; D018566:Pregnancy, High-Risk