Hidden Pattern in Maternal Deaths

In Mexico, given the high mortality ratio, maternal deaths are notified and analyzed carefully every year by the Ministry of Health (MoH) who has developed tools aiming to provide recommendations for the health systems.
We analyzed the national 2010 abortion related mortality files. We used the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) that includes all pregnancies with abortive outcome under codes O00- O06. Overall, abortion related mortality accounted for 7.2% of Maternal Mortality (MM) during 1990-2008. During 2010, 9.27% of maternal deaths were due to abortion. Almost 75% of these deaths were in women 15-34 years old, younger than other causes; 26% were single compared with 15% for other causes. 90% of women received health care before the death.
Quality of the information of abortion cases was poorer than other MM causes; regularly a MM case includes 11 elements for the comprehensive analysis into their file. In the case of abortion deaths, only 66% of the files had verbal autopsies, and only 23% necropsy reports.
Despite the interest in MM, first trimester deaths are not being adequately addressed in the current framework. Abortion related deaths enquiries demand a renovated effort from the health information systems, to provide more adequate data and help guide recommendations.