No. 235-Active Management of the Third Stage of Labour: Prevention and Treatment of Postpartum Hemorrhage

Abstract

Objective: To review the clinical aspects of postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) and provide guidelines to assist clinicians in the prevention and management of PPH. These guidelines are an update from the previous Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC) clinical practice guideline on PPH, published in April 2000.

Evidence: Medline, PubMed, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, ACP Journal Club, and BMJ Clinical Evidence were searched for relevant articles, with concentration on randomized controlled trials (RCTs), systematic reviews, and clinical practice guidelines published between 1995 and 2007. Each article was screened for relevance and the full text acquired if determined to be relevant. Each full-text article was critically appraised with use of the Jadad Scale and the levels of evidence definitions of the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care.

Values: The quality of evidence was rated with use of the criteria described by the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care.

Sponsor: The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada.

Recommendations: Prevention of Postpartum HemorrhageTreatment of PPHRecommendations were quantified using the evaluation of evidence guidelines developed by the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care (Table 1).

Keywords: Prevention; hemorrhage; obstetric hemorrhage; obstetrics.