- In the INPer, 2,200 deliveries were attended during 2022.
- Placental accreta stands out as one of the main causes of maternal deaths in the country.
- There is an alarming neonatal nursing deficit in Mexico because there are only 700.
The National Institute of Perinatology (INPer) “Isidro Espinosa de los Reyes” unveiled one of its most important achievements. Thanks to the use of state-of-the-art surgical techniques and treatments, he has avoided maternal deaths and permanent disability of newborns, especially those with limited resources who do not have social security.
Maternal health professionals from this highly specialized institute apply measures to avoid or treat pregnancy complications in women with overweight, obesity, cancer, and kidney and heart diseases; They perform surgeries inside the uterus, attend to diseases of women and newborns.
Keys to avoid maternal deaths
The developed capacities and the professionalism of those who make up the health personnel make this institute a national and international benchmark in care, research and training of highly specialized human resources.
The general director of INPer, Jorge Arturo Cardona Perezhighlighted that the national and international links that this institute has established to innovate every day in all aspects contribute to providing comprehensive and quality care.
He explained that, in 2022, in the INPer attended 2,200 births, and one of the most important achievements is the prevention of maternal and neonatal deaths. It was the result of multidisciplinary work that includes the systematization of processes for adequate prenatal control and care of the newborn, especially with low birth weight.
Other problems that increase the risk of death during pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium are: preeclampsia, sepsis, overweight, obesity, heart disease, cancer and kidney disease.
Main causes of maternal deaths in Mexico
He specified that one of the main causes of maternal death in the country is a condition called placental accreta, when the placenta inserts into the endometrium and does not separate completely from the uterus during delivery, resulting in obstetric haemorrhage. In the INPer, one of every 44 pregnancies presents this alteration and in the last three years there has not been a single death from this cause.
Another advance, he pointed out, is the high specialty perinatal surgery that began in May 2022. To date, 14 women with twin pregnancies complicated by twin-twin transfusion syndrome have undergone intrauterine laser photocoagulation separation of abnormal blood vessels that communicate to twins sharing the same placenta.
With this intervention, 80 percent of the twins manage to survive, and if it is not performed, they would run the risk of dying in the womb.
Fetuses have also been operated on in utero with diaphragmatic hernia, critical stenosis of heart valves and correction of myelomeningocele, which is the most serious type of spina bifida and which in our country is an important cause of disability and morbidity and mortality. In this way, the life of the product is saved and it can be avoided that they are born with disabilities.
The general director of INPer also referred to the care of pregnant women with kidney failure, who receive treatment with hemodialysis, which allows babies to be born in better conditions.
Regarding adolescent pregnancy, he specified that patients receive comprehensive care and counseling with a high degree of ethics and humanism, since it is a problem that involves biological, social, and psychological aspects.
Regarding specialized personnel, he recognized that In Mexico the number of neonatal nursing professionals is insufficient because there are only 700. In this context, it is necessary to better prepare these personnel to respond to the demand and improve the quality and safety of the care process.
INPer has a staff of 519 nurses with technical, bachelor’s, postgraduate, master’s and doctoral levels, as well as general practitioners and specialists in critical medicine, nephrology, maternal fetal and neonatal medicine and, recently, perinatal psychiatry for postpartum depression care.
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