Background Severe acute maternal morbidity, accounting for any life-threatening complication during pregnancy or after delivery, is a major issue in maternal health. Measuring and monitoring it seems critical for assessing the quality of maternal health care. We explored the relevance of maternal ICU admission as an indicator of severe acute maternal morbidity by characterizing, among maternal ICU admissions, the profile of women with severe acute maternal morbidity and their ICU stay, according to the association with other criterion of severe acute maternal morbidity.

KEYWORDS 2 critical care, epidemiology, intensive care unit, obstetrics, severe acute maternal morbidity, obstetric hemorrhage