Resuscitating the Crashing Pregnant Patient

Care of the critically ill pregnant patient is anxiety-provoking for those unprepared, as the emergency physician must consider not only the welfare of the immediate patient, but of the fetus as well. Familiarity with the physiologic changes of pregnancy and how they affect clinical presentation and management is key. Although some medications may be safer in pregnancy than others, stabilizing the pregnant patient is paramount. Emergency physicians should target pregnancy-specific oxygen and ventilation goals and hemodynamics and should be prepared to perform a perimortem cesarean section, should the mother lose pulses, to increase chances for maternal and fetal survival.