Tranexamic acid

Germaine Greer wrote that ‘[c]hildbirth has been transformed from an awesome personal and social event into a medical phenomenon’ (Greer, 1984: 19). But given that around 830 women die every day from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth, and that 99% of all maternal deaths occur in developing countries (World Health Organization, 2017), it is also clear that medicine has a role to play in addressing these bleak statistics. Indeed, Hadi (2017) notes that sexual and reproductive health has been identified by Amnesty International as an important human rights issue. In particular, postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) is the leading cause of maternal mortality in Africa and Asia, accounting for almost half of the total number of deaths in these regions, and an estimated 25% of global maternal mortality (Snelgrove, 2009).