Amniotic Fluid Embolism Foundation

24 Days Without You Trailer

Key Takeaways:

Amniotic fluid embolism is a rare but highly fatal condition (top five cause of maternal death) that is unpredictable, unpreventable, and poorly understood—requiring robust team preparedness and emergency protocols in all delivery settings.

Trauma-informed care and robust postpartum mental health support for both parents are essential, as maternal survival from AFE does not guarantee emotional recovery or immediate bonding with newborns.

Patient registries and research participation are critical to advancing understanding of rare maternal conditions; the AFE Foundation's registry helps clinicians collect data that may eventually make AFE predictable or preventable.

Pregnancy after AFE is possible with informed decision-making: data shows zero recurrence in documented cases, allowing survivors to pursue subsequent pregnancies when supported by knowledgeable healthcare teams.

Storytelling and documentary filmmaking can serve as powerful clinical and educational tools, providing healthcare workers with closure, perspective, and motivation beyond traditional textbook learning.

Quotable Moments

"Amniotic fluid embolism, despite the name, isn't actually an embolism that happens in a pregnant woman or a pregnant patient. It is an anaphylactic type reaction to amniotic fluid that enters maternal circulatory system."

"I woke up 17 days later in the ICU without my baby... and during the course of my 17-day treatment, a lot of things went wrong."

"I think we've had a lot of people say like, oh, tell us about how magical it was the first time you brought them in. And was it so happy and so just heartwarming? But it really discounts the trauma that's there."

"Even in a typical birth where nothing happens to mom and nothing happens to baby, it's very normal to not have that magical click where all of a sudden you lay eyes on this baby and it's this instant bond that forms."

"We focus a lot as we should on preventable maternal deaths... And so obviously that is the priority right now. And I caveat that with spina bifida also used to not be preventable and it was unpreventable until we understood what caused it."

Show Notes by Barevalue

No content or comments made in any TIPQC Healthy Mom Healthy Baby Podcast is intended to be comprehensive or medical advice. Neither healthcare providers nor patients should rely on TIPQC’s Podcasts in determining the best practices for any particular patient. Additionally, standards and practices in medicine change as new information and data become available and the individual medical professional should consult a variety of sources in making clinical decisions for individual patients. TIPQC undertakes no duty to update or revise any particular Podcast. It is the responsibility of the treating physician or health care professional, relying on independent experience and knowledge of the patient, to determine appropriate treatment.