Stillbirth in Brazil: studying prevalence, causes and related conditions

Abstract

The fetal death rate is an important health care indicator, and depict the quality of maternal and child health care in a certain population. The appropriate identification and study of the causes of fetal deaths and their associated conditions gives the opportunity for reducing deaths, especially due to unknown or preventable causes. We propose a descriptive, observational and hospital-based study, to be performed retrospectively in ten tertiary obstetric care centers. The activities of the applicant will be carried out essentially in one of the centers, which is the obstetric unit of Unicamp, the Women's Hospital - CAISM. Medical records of women with fetal deaths between 01/01/2009 and 31/12/2018 will be consecutively analyzed and classified for the cause and associated conditions according the system Codac. Considering the prevalence of unspecified cause of fetal death in 22,5%, the accuracy of 2% and the type 1 error of 5%, the final sample is 1.680 cases of fetal death for the 10 participating centers. The fetal death rate, their causes and associated conditions will be presented in proportions with IC 95%. In addition, a descriptive secondary analysis of the Brazilian Mortality Information System (SIM) from the last 10 years will be performed, addressing causes of deaths and associated conditions.