In brief, this is a multicenter, cross-sectional study aimed to study the occurrence of severe maternal
morbidity in a worldwide network of health facilities.
It was approved by the World Health Organization Ethical
Review Committee and implemented in a random sample of 359 health facilities in 29 countries from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Because of the financial and practical constraints, we did not conduct the survey in developed countries except for Japan, which volunteered to participate. A stratified, multistage cluster sampling strategy was used to select countries, provinces, and health facilities. Within each country, the capital city was sampled, along with two randomly selected provinces (probability proportional to population). From these, seven