Maternal Near Miss

A significant contribution to reduced maternal mortality worldwide includes programmes of systematic surveillance and investigation of maternal deaths. However, maternal deaths represent the tip of the iceberg. Near miss events occur significantly more frequently than maternal death, presenting an opportunity for examination of approximately 8000 cases per year in the UK compared to around 80 maternal deaths in the same period. The World Health Organization defined criteria for maternal near miss: ‘a woman who nearly died but survived a complication that occurred during pregnancy, childbirth or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy’. This chapter will review the identification of near misses.