Near miss audit in obstetrics.

In developed countries the Maternal Mortality Ratio’s (MMR) are low. To get a large enough sample to identify trends in the quality of maternal health care or of the diseases causing maternal deaths takes anything from 3 to 10 years. The information might be out of date due to new developments and discoveries by the time the information is published. Further, the circumstances related to a maternal death in a developed country are often very particular to the individual case and the value of this information for general use might be limited.