The Problem: Postpartum hemorrhage (PPH)
Nearly 300,000 women die during or after pregnancy every year, with a majority of deaths in the developing world. While the UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) #5 calls for a 75% reduction in maternal mortality from 1990 to 2015, we are on pace to fall short of that goal by more than 25%. PPH is the single largest cause of maternal mortality worldwide and can kill a woman from hemorrhagic shock in as little as 2 hours if she does not receive adequate care. PPH is characterized by a blood loss of over 500 mL within the first 24 hours after childbirth, and is commonly caused by a woman’s uterus not contracting. This condition is 100% treatable, but it still causes 90,000 deaths every year worldwide.
This condition is easily treated in the developed world, where mortality rates due to PPH are close to zero. However, in the developing world, treatments common in the developed world are often unaffordable and may require skilled workers to perform. This is especially true in remote rural areas of the developing world, where patients may have to wait up to 48 hours for medical supplies and professionals to arrive. As a result, 99% of all maternal mortality from PPH occurs in developing nations.
This condition is easily treated in the developed world, where mortality rates due to PPH are close to zero. However, in the developing world, treatments common in the developed world are often unaffordable and may require skilled workers to perform. This is especially true in remote rural areas of the developing world, where patients may have to wait up to 48 hours for medical supplies and professionals to arrive. As a result, 99% of all maternal mortality from PPH occurs in developing nations.
A Non-Pneumatic Anti-Shock Garment (NASG)
Many low resource settings are now equipped with the non- pneumatic anti-shock garment (NASG) [pictured above], a medical device which provides pressure to the patient’s abdomen and legs to slow blood loss and shunt it away from the lower extremities towards the vital organs. The NASG also applies direct pressure on the uterus, allowing it to contract to further slow blood loss. However, medical practitioners who use the NASG are unable to quantify how much pressure they are applying on patients, which lowers the NASG's effectiveness by leading to a large variance in pressure applied between different patients. Furthermore, there currently is no gold standard for the range of effective and therapeutic pressures that can be utilized.
Saving Sara's device helps overcome the NASG's inability to detect applied pressure, thereby increasing its effectiveness and consequently significantly reducing the maternal mortality rate in low resource settings around the world.
Saving Sara's device helps overcome the NASG's inability to detect applied pressure, thereby increasing its effectiveness and consequently significantly reducing the maternal mortality rate in low resource settings around the world.
