Developing an assessment tool for maternal morbidity ‘near‐miss’– A prospective study in a large Australian regional hospital

Background:  Maternal mortality is now a rare event in the developed world and its measurement is no longer a useful way of assessing obstetric care. Examination of cases of women who nearly died but survived a severe complication of pregnancy or childbirth – maternal ‘near‐misses’ ‐ is increasingly being recognised as potentially more useful, although severe maternal morbidity is much less easy to define and quantify than maternal death.

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