The Belgian Analysis system for Maternal Mortality (BAMM) is a structured and confidential registration and analysis system for maternal deaths in Belgium,
which was launched in Belgium in January 2021, and which is supported by the Federal Public Service Health.
Each case of maternal death in Belgium is analysed in a structured manner by a multidisciplinary team of experts.
The aim is to learn from these rare maternal deaths, which have a profound impact on families and the clinicians involved; and to formulate recommendations for good clinical practice that can improve the quality of (obstetric) care in all Belgian maternity wards.
NO BLAME is at the top of BAMM's methodology. More information about the project and its methodology can be found at BAMM.
BAMM is looking for 1 or 2 experts in midwifery, to participate in the national expert team.
The methodology and what is expected from the experts is explained in the timeline (see attachment) and in the text below.
Methodology:
- Maternal deaths need to be reported to BAMM, by the hospitals, by clinicians or by experts who are aware of a maternal death.
- In the event of a maternal death, a local analysis is carried out by the healthcare providers involved together with a quality coordinator. This is done in the presence of the BAMM officer.
- During the local analysis, pseudonymised data is collected about the case (all relevant file data, a questionnaire about the woman's background, a report of the local analysis, assessments by healthcare providers, etc.).
- A multidisciplinary national expert team is nominated for a period of 3 years: gynaecologists, midwifes, anaesthetists, cardiologists, psychiatrists, infectiologists, hematologists, IC specialists, emergency physicians and pulmonologists.
- The national experts analyse all cases through a combination of online preparation and live expert meetings (2 live meetings per year).
- Preparation of each case by 2 to 4 experts (some time before the actual expert meeting):
- Going through the anonymised documents via the online platform
- Ask missing information if necessary
- Prepare short presentation
- First online analysis of Cause of death and Contributing factors (a list of statements in the form of a Likert scale) + Formulation of recommendations
- Preparation of each case by 2 to 4 experts (some time before the actual expert meeting):
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- Live expert meeting with 4 to 6 cases to be analysed by all experts present:
- Short presentation of the experts who prepared the case
- All experts vote individually via the platform on the proposal of Cause of Death, Contributing factors and Recommendations
- Live discussion
- Live expert meeting with 4 to 6 cases to be analysed by all experts present:
- As a result of the local and national analysis, a national BAMM report is developed with recommendations for improvement in this specific case. If possible, extrapolated to national obstetric care.
Workload:
- Estimated at most 12 maternal deaths per year
- Involvement in the National Analysis of maternal deaths: online preparation and live expert meetings (2 times per year)
- ‘nominated’ as BAMM experts for a period of 3 years
- Conditions:
- Experts have to sign a statement of confidentiality
- Experts have to sign a declaration of potential conflict of interest
- It is recommended that experts follow the recordings of an introduction on incident analysis
- This work is on a voluntary basis, experts will only receive the honor to be part of this nominated national expert team
Don’t hesitate to ask any questions or further information.