Role of the midwife and the obstetrician in obstetric critical care – a case study from the James Cook University Hospital

The role of the obstetrician and the midwife are fundamental to the successful antenatal management, delivery and postpartum management of the critically ill obstetric patient. However, there is a dearth of published literature on the integrated management of these roles. This chapter addresses these issues by reporting on experiences at James Cook University Hospital in developing a more holistic approach to patient management and critical care through appraisal of these roles, and resulting extension of the role of the midwife to encompass physiological assessment, understanding the effects of pregnancy on disease, interpretation of, and acting on, blood results including arterial gases, and development of the service through the development of guidelines and undertaking audits. The role of the midwife has been extended taking an overview of critical care of the mother, baby and family. The resulting development of the role of the obstetrician encompasses leadership, clinical knowledge, documentation, guideline development, risk management and the communication functions of debrief, audit and education. Development of the roles has reduced admissions to intensive care and increased patient satisfaction and adherence to policies at James Cook University Hospital. This paper provides a critical appraisal of this role development and discusses some of the lessons learned.