Introduction:

A stillbirth is an event in pregnancy that supposes a negative result for parents, families and the health personnel involved. The lack of resources could be the main obstacle to accessing prenatal care, a symptom of health imbalance. The poor knowledge of the causes of stillbirth is associated with the belief that these events are inevitable; however, many binding factors are potentially modifiable.

Objective:

To describe the causes of stillbirths in Chile.

Material and methods:

A cross-sectional and analytical study was conducted. The analysis was determined from the 22 weeks´ gestation, according to the standard criterion of the World Health Organization. The most frequent causes were used to determine the association between test and the level of statistical significance p <0.05.

Results:

The highest percentage of fetal deaths was recorded at 35 or more weeks (35.63%). The main macro-causes of stillbirth were: fetal (47.0%), placental (31.4%), and unknown (10.89%). The main specific causes were intrauterine hypoxia (24.4%), unspecified cause (10.87%), and placental morphological-functional abnormalities (10.83%). The specific cause of intrauterine hypoxia is associated with gestational age, maternal age, and maternal educational level (p <0.05).

Conclusions:

Prenatal health demonstrates obstetric care, quality, and progress in health care. There are gaps in the detection of the causes and quality of records, so unknown causes tend to rise over time. It is advisable to add temporal, biological and social components to the registry of fetal deaths.

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