Assessing obstetric risk. A review of obstetric risk-scoring systems.

The primary purpose of formal risk assessment in obstetrics is the prevention and consequent reduction of perinatal morbidity and mortality through early identification and intervention. Obstetric risk scoring quantifies identified risk factors according to their relative contribution to adverse perinatal outcomes and aggregates individual factor scores. A review of existing scoring methods reveals consistently low positive predictive values and more accurate prediction when the assessment occurs closer to the time of actual delivery. While numerous scoring systems exist in the literature, few are convenient in practice, and none appear to assess effectively the dynamic character of pregnancy.