[Maternal mortality in France. Frequency and reasons for its under-estimation in the statistics of medical cause of death. Group of Experts on Maternal Mortality].

All deaths of women of reproductive age notified in France over four months were the subject of an enquiry carried out through the post to the doctors who had written the certificates of death. The objective was to try to evaluate the true maternal mortality on a national scale. This enquiry was carried out on 4,102 female deaths and showed that 68 of these (1.6%) were in pregnant or puerperal women. 45 of these deaths were classified as maternal which was twice the number that showed up on the official statistics of the causes of death. On one hand the under notification--due to failure to realise that the patient was pregnant at the time of certification, and on the other hand the under registration because of the complexity of the pathological states explain this under estimation. The frequency of maternal mortality has been evaluated at 18 per 100,000 live births and 60% of these deaths are considered as due to a direct obstetric cause. The most frequent causes are embolisms, then haemorrhages and hypertension of pregnancy.