Table 5.

Included studies reporting public health interventions associated with PP ED use

Study	Location	Concept	Findings
Barimani	Sweden	PP support satisfaction and ED visit frequency	Women with delivery complications were less satisfied and used EDs more often
Ferriols Perez	Spain	Referrals to the ED and the adequacy of that referral in pregnant and PP women	In PP patients, 33.8% visited the ED for adequate motives, 41.6% for moderately adequate motives, and 24.7% for inadequate motives
Johnson et al46	The United States	Psychosocial education during pregnancy hospital stay and follow-up care	Despite less time in the hospital, postdischarge maternal ED visits and/or readmits did not increase. Differences in newborn ED visits and/or readmits were not significant
Laliberté et al45	Canada	Breastfeeding clinic and ED visits	No difference was found in the rate of ED visits by mothers who received care at the PP breastfeeding clinic
Lieu et al44	The United States	Establishment of a PP care center and the implications for ED visits for both mothers and infants	No significant differences in maternal (or newborn) ED visits were found after establishing a PP care center
Madlon-Kay and DeFor41	The United States	Implementation of Minnesota length-of-stay laws requiring home visit for shorter postnatal hospital stay, frequency of ED visits and admittance to hospital	Mothers with longer hospital stays, mothers without early follow-up (before 6 weeks), and mothers with cesarean delivery were more likely to use urgent care or ED services PP
Mandl	The United States	Mother’s length of hospital stay and follow-up ED visits	Longer maternal hospital stays correlated with increased maternal ED use
Murray et al47	The United Kingdom	Self-exclusion from health visiting support in women at risk for PPD	Women who self-excluded from health visiting support services were more likely to use EDs instead of attending regular appointments. These women were also of lower education and younger
Paul	The United States	Planned follow-up visits vs. home visits in breastfeeding mothers and PP health care utilization.	Planned follow-up vs. home health had no effect on ED visits or readmissions
Pérez-Martinez	Spain	Midwife vs. obstetrician delivery and complications	No significant difference was found in the number of women attending the ED after discharge between women who were delivered by midwives vs. obstetricians
Watt et al42	Canada	PP hospitalization length of stay and ED visits	With longer stays, women experienced more hospital readmissions, but fewer had contacts with community physicians and EDs

Abbreviation: ED, emergency department; PP, postpartum.