Critical care fellows’ training experiences with obstetric critical care: A cross-sectional survey

Obstetric critical illness is rare, occurring in only 0.15% of live births in the United States. However, critically ill pregnant patients are medically complex and represent 2.1% of mechanically ventilated patients and 1.8% of patients with septic shock, making obstetric critically ill patients a high-risk, low-volume population. As a result of rising maternal mortality rates, especially among Black women, and increasing abortion restrictions throughout the United States, the obstetric critically ill population is anticipated to grow, and racial disparities are anticipated to worsen. Intensivist competency in obstetric emergencies is essential, as a majority of maternal deaths in the United States are preventable and occur in intensive care units. Therefore, we aimed to characterize the obstetric critical care training experiences of U.S. critical care fellows. We hypothesized that critical care fellows would not feel comfortable or prepared to manage these patients because of their clinical complexity, relative rarity, and need for multispecialty care.

National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute

Jessica Zimo, Neelima Navuluri, Deepshikha C Ashana, Catherine Chen, Hayley B Gershengorn, Rachel Kohn, Emily A Vail, Nandita R Nadig, Katrina E Hauschildt, Kelly C Vranas, Elizabeth M Viglianti