Caracterização de morte fetal em maternidades públicas de referência em uma capital Amazônica

Abstract

To characterize the fetal deaths recorded in public maternity hospitals of an Amazonian capital, in the period from 2019 to 2022, with emphasis on potentially preventable causes Methods: Cross-sectional study was conducted in three public maternity hospitals in Manaus, with retrospective data collection. The data were obtained by reviewing fetal death certificates that occurred in the selected maternity hospitals, from January/2019 to December/2022, and analyzed in the RStudio software, based on descriptive analysis and Fisher's exact test. For the analysis of deaths from preventable causes, the Brazilian List of Causes of Avoidable Deaths adapted for fetal deaths was adopted. Results: The mean maternal age was 27 years, with no history of miscarriage. Most of the deaths were from single-fetus pregnancy, with a mean gestational age of 31.43 weeks, mean weight of 1,902 grams and that occurred antepartum. The highest percentage of deaths corresponded to ill-defined/inconsistent causes with fetal death. Preventable causes accounted for 32.5% of deaths, with prevalence in the subcategory of causes "reducible by adequate care for women during pregnancy". Conclusion: There is an urgent need for investments in the qualification for the adequate completion of the fetal death certificate and in prenatal care