One of the most dramatic changes to women's lives in the twentieth century was the advent of safe childbirth, reducing the maternal mortality rate from 1 in 400 births to 1 in 10,000 in just 80 years. The impetus behind this change was the Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Death (CEMD), now the world's longest running self-audit of a healthcare service. Here, leading authors in the CEMD tell the story of the pioneering clinicians behind the push for improvements, who received little recognition for their work despite its far-reaching consequences. One by one, the leading causes of maternal death were identified and resolved, from sepsis to safe abortions and more recently psychiatric illness and social and ethnic disparities in healthcare. Global maternal mortality is still too high; this valuable book shows how significant advances in maternal healthcare are possible when clinicians, politicians and the public work together.

This is the second volume in an annual series reviewing important areas and advances in obstetric ultrasound, with wide-ranging reviews as well as chapters that look at chosen topics in more depth. This volume again draws together outstanding contributions from radiologists, obstetricians, and scientists to provide full coverage of clinical problems of particular current interest, such as extopic pregnancy, prenatal diagnosis of neural tube defects, fetal cardiac arrhythmias, and non-immune hydrops, while also covering litigations, equipment, and randomized trails of obstetric ultrasound.