**2. Principles of resuscitation for 'maternal collapse' during pregnancy, labor and postpartum**

Maternal Collapse is acute life threatening event in which the mother becomes unconscious due to cardiorespiratory or neurological compromise at any stage in pregnancy or up to 6 weeks postpartum.

The incidence of maternal collapse and sever maternal mortality is unknown. Recent studies estimate that maternal collapse occur in between 0.14 and 6 per 1000 births. In the hospital maternal collapse and sudden cardiac arrest are usually related to per partum events and the outcome depends on effective resuscitation and identification and effective treatment of underlining cause. Therefore staff on the hospital must be expertly trained in advanced life-support techniques and resuscitation equipment should be readily available.

During resuscitation, the mechanical ad physiological changes of pregnancy can have an impact on a successful outcome and should be considered.

Specific causes for maternal collapse.

While some underlying causes of maternal collapse are not preventable, it is important to note that maternal cardiac arrest occur frequently due to deterioration of underling critical illness. Care for women with significant pre-existing illness should therefore occur in a multidisciplinary sitting with place for pregnancy management and delivery. It is important to introduce a maternal early –warning chart for the observation of all pregnant patients in a hospital setting, to detect critical illness at the earliest possible stage [1, 2].
