BJOG : an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology
-
To assess whether severe acute maternal morbidity (SAMM, 'near misses') can be used as a surrogate of an analysis of maternal deaths to describe the pattern of severe maternal disease and avoidable factors related to it. ⋯ Review of SAMM gives a different disease pattern to that obtained from maternal death audits. However, in diagnosing inadequacies in the health system, similar information was obtained.