Rev Lat Am Enferm
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This study aims at learning about and identifying the causes leading to maternal death. Data were obtained from the Ribeirão Preto Committee for Studies and Prevention of Maternal Death and from obituaries. ⋯ In 1995, the maternal death rate was 60.3 in 100,000 births, with the predominance of avoidable causes, such as hemorrhage (33.3%), other causes (26.4%), hypertension (15.3%), abortion (11.1%), infection (8.3%) and puerperium (5.6%). Maternal death is a public health problem which must be faced by government authorities.