Management of Postpartum Haemorrhage and Effect of Geographic Region

Background: Maternal deaths occur universally and are largely avoidable. Postpartum haemorrhage accounts for a disproportionate amount of maternal deaths. There remains a great need to expeditiously decrease the rate of postpartum haemorrhage to prevent further mortality. Methods: This study is a cohort analysis of data collected for the pragmatic international multi-centre randomized double blind placebo controlled design WOMAN Trial. It will present a univariate analysis of patient and delivery characteristics (age, type of delivery, placenta fully delivered, primary cause of haemorrhage, severity of haemorrhage), physiologic characteristics (systolic blood pressure, estimated blood loss, clinical signs of haemodynamic instability) and management characteristics (receipt of blood products, uterotonics). Multivariable logistic regression models and likelihood ratio tests will be used to examine the evidence for interaction between death from PPH and region after adjusting for any independent effects of 1) systolic blood pressure 2)age 3) type of delivery 4) receipt of blood products Discussion: This analysis of the WOMAN trial dataset will explore the relationship between geographical location, patient and environment characteristics and outcomes of postpartum haemorrhage. A protocol and statistical analysis plan is presented here.