Epilepsy in pregnancy – patient safety challenges in contemporary practice

Abstract

Pregnant patients with epilepsy are at particularly high risk of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality, likely in large part due to suboptimal medication prescribing. In our health system a recent tragic case of a double maternal / neonatal death in a woman with epilepsy triggered a quality improvement analysis of our practice in this regard. We analysed the care received by this patient cohort in a large obstetric hospital with over 10,000 pregnancies per annum.