Maternity units help women identify sepsis risk after c-section 

Changes were also seen at maternity units in Tralee, Clonmel, and Waterford.

Mary Fitzmaurice, clinical nurse manager 2, SSI Surveillance (surgical site infection) at CUMH outlined how the project works at the HSE national sepsis summit.

Women’s comments were similar across all units, she said.

Patients were saying that even though they were getting information they weren’t assimilating it the way we thought they were. They felt disconnected and disempowered when they went home.

She said women reported feeling overwhelmed by the major surgery, and added: “They didn’t really understand what was expected of them or what to do when they went home”.

The feedback followed an audit of just over 900 women who had a c-section at a hospital under the Ireland South Women and Infants Directorate in 2022 or 2023.

About half had an emergency unplanned c-section, she said.

“We had an infection rate of just under 12% at 11.9%,” she said, adding: “we saw 91% of our surgical site infections presented post-discharge [from hospital] and over 50% of these were diagnosed within the community.”

GPs and social media provide information

In response new education materials were developed including an animated video with support from external funding.

This is available from health sites including GPs and on social media or Youtube, MS Fitzmaurice said.

The video highlights signs and symptoms of sepsis with clear instructions on when and how to seek help

“My output is from Cork University Maternity Hospital and what we’ve seen there is a 44% decrease in surgical site infection rates,” she said.

The ongoing collection of detailed data has also added to their understanding, she said.

She added: “We have also seen a 33% decrease in our re-admission rate” and in how long women need to stay in hospital after being admitted.

This close monitoring of women after getting c-sections continues at all four sites, with the data also feeding into other projects.

Ms Fitzmaurice noted two of the four units already use digital health records and described this as “invaluable” for research.

In contrast, data from the other sites was gathered from paper files.

C-sections are the most commonly performed major surgeries worldwide with the rate having doubled between the years 2000 and 2015, she said.