Near-Miss/Severe acute maternal morbidity (SAMM): A new concept in maternal care

A near-miss obstetric morbidity means a woman (in pregnancy/labour/puerperium) who almost died but survived. The near-miss: mortality ratio is a possible new indicator of maternal care and could be used to compare improvements in treatments more accurately than mortality date alone. Criteria to define and identify the cases vary greatly. The incidence ranges from 0.07% to 8.23% and the case fatality ratio from 0.02% to 37%. Massive obstetric haemorrhage and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy are two important primary obstetric causes of near-miss morbidity. Mortality index (MI) in one of the potential method of assessing the care received by SAMM cases. Population based surveys are considered preferable to collect informations of near-miss.