An investigator and a coordinator were present at
each center. Among all deliveries in these institutions during the 1-year
period, 9555 women with severe maternal morbidity were identified;
cases of PLTC, MNM, and maternal death were identified using WHO
criteria [16–18]. Approval was obtained from the National Council for
Ethics in Research and the institutional review boards of participating
units. The need for informed consent was waived because study data
were collected from medical records