Practice guidelines and prevention of obstetric anesthesia-related maternal mortality.

In the United States obstetric anesthesia has been a major subspecialty of anesthesiology for a long time and is now an integral part of practice of most anesthesiologists1. An obstetric anesthesiologist has become an essential member of the obstetric care team, who closely works with the obstetrician, family practitioner, midwife, neonatologist and Labor and Delivery nurse to ensure the highest quality care for the pregnant woman and her baby. The anesthesiologist’s (obstetric anesthesiologist’s) unique skills in acute resuscitation combined with experience in critical care, make members of our specialty (subspecialty) particularly valuable in the peripartum care of the high risk patients, extending our role well beyond the routine provision of intrapartum anesthesia or analgesia1.