Purpose
A. To encourage universal use of a nationally accepted classification of urgency of caesarean section with the aim of:
- facilitating local and national data collection
- minimising communication difficulties relating to urgency of delivery, between and within teams
- facilitating retrospective audit of outcomes.
B. To formalise the concept that urgency of caesarean section represents a continuum of risk:
- four broad categories of risk are defined
- all staff should be aware that, within each category, the degree of risk in individual cases can vary
- a coloured spectrum is used to emphasise that continuum of risk
- this variance in degree of risk requires an individual, case-by-case approach in deciding the specific
decision-to-delivery interval (DDI).
The full guideline can be downloaded below as a pdf:
