Maternal death rate Archives - Revista Brasileira de Ginecologia e Obstetrícia

The parpose of the present report was to determine the maternal mortality rate in São Paulo, the most frequent pathologies which caused death and the distribution of cases paccording to age. In thepresent retrospective study 179,872 death certificates from April 1993 to December 1995 of women from 10 to 49 years old. Were reviewed 761 death certificates were selected, in which the pregnancy state was either declared or presumed; pregnancy was confirmed in 291/761 cases and 53/761 cases are still under investigation. The data were tabulated, grouped and analyzed considering the age and cause of death, according to the 9th revised edition of ICD - International Classification of Diseases. Of the 291 positive cases, 82 (28.17%) did not show any reference to the pregnancy state in the death certificate (undernotification); 183/291 cases (62.89%) were direct maternal deaths and the main diseases leading to maternal death were: hemorrhage (47/183), preeclampsia-eclampsia (46/183) and abortion complications (43/183). Among the indirectly related causes of maternal death (79/291), cardiopaty was the most frequent (33/79). Hypertensive syndrome (preeclampsia-eclampsia and/or chronic arterial hypertension) were responsible for 58/291 cases (19.93%) of maternal deaths. This study allowed us to calculate the maternal mortality rate for São Paulo: 50.24:100,000 live births.