Maternal mortality, as a largely avoidable cause of death and reduction in maternal mortality has been a top priority in Brazil, despite massive program efforts to avert maternal deaths, the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) in Brazil is still high especially in the poor area. Estimates of maternal mortality rates in Brazil are affected by underreporting of deaths, especially in less

Abstract

Maternal mortality, as a largely avoidable cause of death and reduction in maternal mortality has been a top priority in Brazil, despite massive program efforts to avert maternal deaths, the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) in Brazil is still high especially in the poor area. Estimates of maternal mortality rates in Brazil are affected by underreporting of deaths, especially in less developed areas of the country where maternal mortality tends to be higher, and the absence of specific information indicating maternal death in reported deaths of women of reproductive age The objective of this study is to identify the true number of maternal deaths. We use data obtained from Ministry of Health information systems from the 2000 and 2012 Brazil Maternal Mortality Surveys to measure change in the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) and to measure changes in factors potentially related to such change. We estimate the changes in risk of maternal death between the two surveys using Poisson regression.