Committee opinion no. 555: hospital disaster preparedness for obstetricians and facilities providing maternity care.

Numerous occurrences in the past decade have brought the issue of disaster preparedness, and specifically hospital preparedness, to the national forefront. Much of the work in this area has focused on large hospital system preparedness for various disaster scenarios. Many unique features of the obstetric population warrant additional consideration in order to optimize the care received by expectant mothers and their fetuses or newborns in the face of future natural or biologic disasters.