Severe maternal morbidity in Canada, 1991-2001.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Although death rates are often used to monitor the quality of health care, in industrialized countries maternal deaths have become rare. Severe maternal morbidity has therefore been proposed as a supplementary indicator for surveillance of the quality of maternity care. Our purpose in this study was to describe severe maternal morbidity in Canada over a 10-year period, among women with or without major pre-existing conditions.

Methods

We carried out a retrospective cohort study of severe maternal morbidity involving 2,548,824 women who gave birth in Canadian hospitals between 1991 and 2000. Thirteen conditions that may threaten the life of the mother (e.g., eclampsia) and 11 major pre-existing chronic conditions (e.g., diabetes) that could be identified from diagn

SUBMITTER: Wen SW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1216316 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature