| Summary: | IntroductionSevere maternal morbidity (SMM) includes conditions that are on a continuum of maternal morbidity to maternal death. Rates of SMM are increasing both in high-income countries (HICs) as well as in low/middle-income countries (LMICs). There is evidence that analysis of SMM trends and detailed investigation of factors implicated in these cases may reflect the standard of maternal healthcare both in HICs and LMICs. SMM is also associated with poorer perinatal outcomes. The aim of this protocol is to describe the proposed methodology for the synthesis and analyses of the data describing the relationship between SMM and adverse perinatal outcomes in a systematic review and meta-analysis.MethodsThis systematic review and meta-analysis will follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines and will be registered with the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO). Original peer-reviewed epidemiologic/clinical studies of observational (cross-sectional, cohort, case-control) and randomised controlled trial studies conducted in high-income countries will be included. An electronic search of PubMed, Embase, CINAHL and Scopus databases will be performed without restricting publication date/year. Two authors will independently screen the titles, review abstracts and perform data extraction. Where possible, meta-analyses will be done to calculate pooled estimates.Ethics and disseminationAs this is a protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis of published data, ethics review and approval are not required. The findings will be published in peer-reviewed journals and disseminated at scientific conferences.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42019130933.
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