Lipkind HS, et al. - In this retrospective cohort study of births in the United States, England and Australia from 2008-2013, researchers sought to recognize pregnancy complications and associated risk factors that resulted in severe maternal morbidity during delivery hospitalizations in large university hospitals using the Dr. Foster Global Comparators database. From 2008-2013, 516,781 deliveries were reported in a total of eighteen hospitals:24.5% from the United States, 57.0% from England and 18.4% from Australia. The countries differed in rates of severe maternal morbidity; 15.6 in the United States, 5.0 in England, and 8.2 in Australia. Transfusion, disseminated intravascular coagulation, acute renal failure, cardiac events/procedures, ventilation, hysterectomy, and eclampsia were identified to be the most common codes identifying severe morbidity. All three countries displayed severe maternal morbidity in correlation to advanced maternal age, hypertension, diabetes and substance abuse.