Maternal death: a century of getting it wrong | Basky Thilaganathan | TEDx Talk..

Basky's research interests are focused on obstetrics and high risk pregnancies with a interest in pre-eclampsia which accounts for 40% of maternal deaths worldwide and contributes to 25% of overall neonatal morbidity. During the last decade, substantial progress has been made towards understanding its causes. In this talk, Basky will reveal emerging evidence that pre-eclampsia is a cardiovascular disorder that effects some of its actions through the placenta.

It is estimated that over 300,000 women will die in childbirth in coming year. It has decreased by 40% in last 20 years.

Majority of the deaths are due to infection, but preeclampsia also is responsible for a massive share. 1 in 5 women will die of preeclampsia that is one maternal death every 12 minutes.

We have believed since centuries that placenta is at the root of all symptoms of preeclampsia.

But how it is that placenta which we disposed off20 years ago, is having an effect on woman’ heart now.

So, we challenge the centuries old belief and research on maternal hemodynamic alteration in pregnancy will be critical to progress further in this arena.

Basky Thilaganathan was appointed in 2008 as Professor of Fetal Medicine at St George’s, University of London. Before that, he was Reader in Fetal Medicine since 2005 and appointed Director of Fetal Medicine at St George’s Hospital in 1999. His research interests are focused on obstetrics and high-risk pregnancies (Materno-Fetal medicine), with a particular interest on maternal cardiac function, placental function, fetal growth and pre-eclamspsia. 

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx