ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Maternal death is the death of a woman during pregnancy within 42days after delivery. It is one of the most serious violations of human rights of women, because it is a preventable tragedy in 92% of cases and occurs mainly in developing countries. Brazil, a country of continental dimensions has the challenge of reducing maternal deaths; one of the priority regions is Santos, a city in the state of São Paulo. It is felt that efforts are made to the adoption of care that can minimize risks during complicated pregnancy with hypertensive disorders, but not always this service is offered proportionally to postpartum. Perhaps the erroneous concept that the delivery is capable of quickly balancing the harm of maternal hypertensive disorders is implicated in reducing postpartum surveillance, exposing this group of women to undesirable outcomes. OBJECTIVES: Analyze the percentage of postpartum maternal deaths until 42days after delivery for hypertensive disorders in Santos in the period of 1999-2009. METHODS: Data were provided by the Ministry of Health of Brazil in www.datasus.gov.br (accessed February 2012). The number of maternal deaths was divided into maternal death in pregnancy, delivery and abortion and maternal death in puerperium up to 42, considering all causes of maternal death and identifying the proportion of deaths due to hypertensive syndromes. RESULTS: According to the general causes of death, more women die during pregnancy, delivery and abortion (69.7%) than postpartum (30.3%) and hypertensive disorders account for 20% of these outcomes. Analyzing the proportion of deaths due to hypertensive disorders in each period, we observed that during pregnancy the disorder accounts for 16.5% of all causes, however, the percentage reaches 30.3% in the puerperium. CONCLUSION: The increase of death in postpartum due to hypertensive syndromes, regarding all general causes, shows the necessary action to be done by the professional team to offer continuity care in and out of hospital in this period, considering that the challenges persist even after delivery.
