To avoid over-admitting healthy pregnant women who naturally map near these limits, the Sepsis in Obstetrics Score (SOS) and local MEWS (Maternal Early Warning Systems) adjust the baseline. For tracking maternal morbidity, maternal tachycardia >110 bpm and fetal tachycardia >160 bpm are extremely sensitive early warning signs of overwhelming maternal infection like chorioamnionitis.

Puerperal fever (postpartum sepsis) historically decimated maternities. Semmelweis discovered the cure—handwashing—in 1847, but he was mocked by the medical establishment. Today, Streptococcal pyogenes (Group A Strep) remains a terrifying, rapidly fatal cause of postpartum sepsis.