Hello and welcome to the zero to finals podcast. My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be

talking to you about postpartum hemorrhage. And you can find written notes on this topic at

zero to finals.com slash pph or in the labour and delivery section of the zero to finals obstetrics and gynecology book.

So let's get straight into it.

Postpartum hemorrh shortened to pph refers to bleeding after delivery of the baby and the placenta.

It's the most common cause of significant obstetric hemorrhage

or bleeding relating to pregnancy

and is a potential cause of maternal death.

Therefore, it needs to be taken very seriously.

To be classified as postpartum hemorrhage,

there needs to be a loss of 500 millilitres after a vaginal

delivery or a thousand milliliters after a caesarean section.

It can be classified as minor postpartum hemorrhage or major postpartum hemorrhage.

Minor postpartum hemorrhage is when there's less than

a thousand millilitres of blood loss and major postpartum hemorrhage is when there's over a thousand

milliliters of blood loss. Major postpartum hemorrhage can be further sub-categorized as moderate

postpartum hemorrhage with a thousand to 2,000

millilitres of blood loss or severe postpartum hemorrhage which is over 2,000 millilitres of blood loss.

It can also be categorized as primary postpartum hemorrhage with bleeding within 24 hours of the

birth or secondary postpartum hemorrhage where bleeding occurs from 24 hours to 12 weeks after birth.

Let's talk about the causes. There are four causes of postpartum hemorrhage, and these can be

remembered with the four T's mnemonic. Tone, meaning uterine, aitone, where the uterus is not contracting

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