BACKGROUND: It has been described that 70% of all maternal deaths are provoked by obstetrical hemorrhage, infections, abortions, hypertension and delivery dystocies. Poverty, social exclusion, low level education and violence are important causes of maternal mortality. OBJECTIVE: To establish the changes in the maternal mortality in a term of 15 years in a hospital of assistance obstetrical complicated. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A retrospective and descriptive study, in which the number and causes of obstetrical death was analyzed, occurred from 1991 to 2005. The comparison was done by five-year periods using descriptive statistics to analyze frequency of results. RESULTS: The number of maternal deaths was 105, 97 and 42 by each one of the three five-year periods, the mortality rate x 10,000 decreased from 28.7 to 16.4 in the last quinquennium and was found from 6.1 just including the last year. In the first and second quinquennia the eclampsia occupied the first place as cause of death, followed by the hemorrhage and the infections. In the third quinquennium the eclampsia also occupied the first place with a rate of 8.6, followed by the cardiopathy (2.3) and the infections (1.9), but the hemorrhage with a rate of 1.5 was displaced to the fourth place. CONCLUSIONS: The maternal mortality has diminished in a general way; the eclampsia has occupied the first place as cause of death from 1991 to 2005. The death by obstetrical hemorrhage has diminished in important form, possibly due to the specific groups of medical attention by modules, which has also helps the decrease of mortality by other causes. The increment of the deaths by cardiopathy should be considered as a possibility of risk, associate undoubtedly to the present style of life from our society.
BACKGROUND: It has been described that 70% of all maternal deaths are provoked by obstetrical hemorrhage, infections, abortions, hypertension and delivery dystocies. Poverty, social exclusion, low level education and violence are important causes of maternal mortality. OBJECTIVE: To establish the changes in the maternal mortality in a term of 15 years in a hospital of assistance obstetrical complicated. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A retrospective and descriptive study, in which the number and causes of obstetrical death was analyzed, occurred from 1991 to 2005. The comparison was done by five-year periods using descriptive statistics to analyze frequency of results. RESULTS: The number of maternal deaths was 105, 97 and 42 by each one of the three five-year periods, the mortality rate x 10,000 decreased from 28.7 to 16.4 in the last quinquennium and was found from 6.1 just including the last year. In the first and second quinquennia the eclampsia occupied the first place as cause of death, followed by the hemorrhage and the infections. In the third quinquennium the eclampsia also occupied the first place with a rate of 8.6, followed by the cardiopathy (2.3) and the infections (1.9), but the hemorrhage with a rate of 1.5 was displaced to the fourth place. CONCLUSIONS: The maternal mortality has diminished in a general way; the eclampsia has occupied the first place as cause of death from 1991 to 2005. The death by obstetrical hemorrhage has diminished in important form, possibly due to the specific groups of medical attention by modules, which has also helps the decrease of mortality by other causes. The increment of the deaths by cardiopathy should be considered as a possibility of risk, associate undoubtedly to the present style of life from our society.