Enhanced maternal mortality surveillance--North Carolina, 1988 and 1989.

Despite dramatic declines in maternal mortality in North Carolina since the late 1940s, public health officials have continued to characterize the magnitude of and risk factors for maternal death in that state (1,2). In 1989 and 1990, the State Center for Health and Environmental Statistics enhanced its surveillance for maternal mortality by computer-matching birth and fetal-death records with the death certificates of females who had died in 1988 and 1989. This report summarizes the findings of this enhanced surveillance for 1988 and 1989.