Maternal critical care: 'one small step for woman, one giant leap for womankind'

The purpose of this study is to outline the challenges of looking after women who either become or are at a risk of becoming critically ill during pregnancy.

In recent years, there has been an increased demand in the need for maternal critical care. This is partly due to women with complex medical conditions surviving to child-bearing age, coupled with improvements in foetal medicine resulting in more high-risk pregnancies reaching term.

In this review, we identify the need for maternal critical care, explore different models of its provision and outline possible benefits and barriers to its future implementation.