Emergency reinfusion of vaginally salvaged red cells after vacuum-assisted vaginal delivery in a Jehovah's Witness: a case report.

Perinatal blood management is critical for all obstetric patients as peripartum haemorrhage is common, unpredictable, and consequences can be severe. Patients who do not consent to allogeneic transfusion of blood products introduce additional complexity and are at greater risk of morbidity and mortality. There is growing evidence that reinfusion of autologous blood salvaged from vaginal deliveries is safe and can be lifesaving. Delivering this potentially lifesaving care requires that staff well trained in intraoperative cell salvage are always resident on the delivery suite, and that the delivery suite multidisciplinary team is familiar with the procedure. Here we present a case of a Jehovah's Witness who suffered a severe postpartum haemorrhage following a vacuum-assisted vaginal delivery who was successfully reinfused with a large quantity of vaginally cell salvaged autologous blood. We discuss the key learning points from this case that enabled the delivery of this care in the complex socio-technical environment of the delivery suit.