MBRRACE-UK: Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries across the UK

Reporting to MBRRACE-UK continues during the COVID-19 pandemic

These are very difficult times, and we appreciate that when services are stretched keeping up with MBRRACE-UK reporting may be challenging.

Furthermore, there has been some confusion regarding the continuation of reporting to MBRRACE-UK during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reporting to MBRRACE-UK is continuing as it is essential to enable us to assess both the direct and indirect effects of COVID-19 on both maternal and perinatal mortality.

Perinatal deaths

All new notifications of perinatal deaths now include 2 additional questions in order to record a positive test for COVID-19 infection in either the mother or baby. Reporting of these deaths is time-critical.

The order of priorities for continuing to report perinatal deaths is therefore:

1. Ensuring that all deaths with a positive test for COVID-19 infection in the mother and/or baby are notified as soon as possible, and the surveillance form is completed as soon as possible thereafter;
2. Continuing to notify all other perinatal deaths.

In addition to the above, please continue with the following activities unless and until front-line clinical activities mean that there is no longer the capacity to do so:

3. Completion of the surveillance form for all perinatal deaths
4. Carrying out reviews using the Perinatal Mortality Review Tool

The Perinatal Team are unable to take telephone calls at present, but if but if have any queries please email mbrracele@npeu.ox.ac.uk with details of your query and your contact details and a member of the team will either call you back or deal with your query via email.

Maternal deaths

Notification of maternal deaths of women with a positive test for COVID-19 infection is a priority. Please ensure that you notify us of a COVID-19 related death by calling: 01865 289715. Please also ensure that the medical notes for these women are sent to us as a priority and that they are sent electronically to: orh-tr.mbrrace@nhs.net

Otherwise notification of all other maternal deaths should continue as normal. In order to notify a maternal death please call 01865 289715 and leave a voicemail with your contact details, or alternatively email your contact details to mbrrace-uk@npeu.ox.ac.uk and a member of the team will call you back as soon as possible.

The Maternal Team are continuing to request and collect medical records, but we understand that the current situation will inevitably slow things down. Where possible we ask that that medical records are sent electronically via nhs.net to orh-tr.mbrrace@nhs.net. If this is not possible, please contact the maternal team for instructions for sending via post.

Thank you for your continuing dedication and hard work.

The MBRRACE-UK Team

Guidance for assessing signs of life

National clinical guidance for the assessment of signs of life for spontaneous births before 24+0 weeks of gestational age where active survival-focused care is not appropriate

MBRRACE-UK Signs of Life Guidance Development Group

Response to the consultation

The members of the MBRRACE-UK Signs of Life Guidance Development Group would like to thank everyone who responded to the consultation on the draft National Clinical Guidance for the assessment of signs of life for spontaneous births before 24+0 weeks of gestational age where active survival focused care is not appropriate. The consultation ran from 15/12/2019 to 09/03/2020. The number of individuals and organisations responding to the consultation was extremely high for this type of consultation with over 250 respondents and we welcome everyone's thoughts and insight. The vast majority of respondents strongly welcomed the guidance. Here we present our response to the key themes that arose in the feedback directly relating to this clinical guidance and describe how the guidance has been modified. All comments were agreed by consensus by the Guidance Development Group.

The release of this response has been delayed due to the challenges of bringing the clinical guidance group together during the Covid-19 pandemic. We are now in the process of revising the guidance with an anticipated release date of autumn 2020.

If you require any further detail please email lucy.smith@le.ac.uk

Response to consultation on signs of life guidance

MBRRACE-UK Signs of life guidance for consultation December 2019

MBRRACE-UK: Saving Lives, Improving Mothers' Care

Rapid report: Learning from SARS-CoV-2-related and associated maternal deaths in the UK March-May 2020

MBRRACE-UK is pleased to announce the publication of the MBRRACE-UK: Saving Lives Improving Mothers' Care rapid report on SARS-CoV-2-related and associated maternal deaths 2020. This report covers the lessons learned to inform care from rapid reviews of the care of women who died with SARS-CoV-2 infection or from mental health-related causes or domestic violence between March and May 2020.

The full report can be downloaded on the report page.

MBRRACE-UK Perinatal Mortality Surveillance Report

UK Perinatal Deaths for Births from January to December 2017

MBRRACE-UK is pleased to announce the publication of the MBRRACE-UK Perinatal Mortality Surveillance Report for Births in 2017. The full report, the summary report, a four page over-view, infographic and Excel versions of the tables in the report can be downloadedon the reports page.

THIS IS NOT THE MBRRACE-UK ONLINE REPORTING SYSTEM. IF YOU WISH TO REPORT A CASE PLEASE GO TO: www.mbrrace.ox.ac.uk