Maternal Sepsis and Septic Shock

The year 2015 marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of Ignaz Semmelweis, the Hungarian physician who identified unhygienic practices of physicians as a major cause of childbed fever or puerperal sepsis. Although such practices have largely disappeared as a factor in the development of chorioamnionitis and postpartum or puerperal endometritis, it is appropriate that this article on sepsis in pregnancy acknowledges his contributions to maternal health. This review describes the incidence and mortality of sepsis in pregnancy, methods to identify and define sepsis in this population, including scoring systems, causes, and sites of infection during pregnancy and parturition and management guidelines.