Mortalidade materna no Brasil: características sociodemográficas e suas principais causas

Abstract

The present study had the general objective of analyzing the association between the occurrence of maternal death and its sociodemographic profile in Brazil. This is an ecological, descriptive and analytical study with a quantitative approach. The extracted data were stored and processed using Microsoft Office Excel software, version 2013, and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 21. The epidemiological profile was characterized by the death of older women between 30 and 59 years old (82.43 maternal deaths per 100,000 LB), non-white (61.54 maternal deaths per 100,000 LB), no schooling (227.76 maternal deaths per 100,000 LB), widowed/separated (99.02 maternal deaths per 100,000 LB), predominating the type of direct obstetric cause (67.49% of deaths), by eclampsia (14.98% of deaths). The region with the highest maternal mortality ratio was the North Region (94.48 maternal deaths per 100,000 LB). It is concluded that women in a situation of social vulnerability, characterized by low education, social, racial and geographic limitations, which hinder access to health services, become more prone to falling ill/dying from preventable causes. It is necessary to strengthen intersectoral public policies that favor the reduction of existing inequalities, favoring those women in unfavorable contexts.