Abstract

World Health Organitation defines the death related to pregnancy as the death of a woman during pregnancy, labor or in the next 42 days after the end of pregnancy state, regardless the duration or place where its taking place. This definition includes deaths from abortion or ectopic pregnancy but excludes those from incidental causes.

Even though pregnancy is consider a normal biological process, it is associated with a certain amount of anatomic and physiological changes that increase the risk of death, especially in those woman over 35 years old, African American and those with a pour prenatal care.

This review pretends to conceptualize maternal mortality, to define its main causes and risk factors, with special emphasis in forensic issues.

Key words: Death related to pregnancy; abortion; ectopic pregnancy; risk factors; maternal mortality