PURPOSE: to study the causes and associated factors of fetal death. METHODS: epidemiological descriptive study, composed of 190 cases of fetal loss amongst 11,825 pregnant women that gave birth at the two only hospitals (Casa de Saúde Divino Espírito Santo and Hospital Nossa Senhora Auxiliadora) of Caratinga City, in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, in the period from January 1, 1995 to April 30, 2000. The variables were the number of pregnancies, the timing of the pregnant women at the time of hospitalization, the occurrence of fetal death in relation to delivery and the cause of fetal death. Since there were no comparative groups, tables, percentages and arithmetical means were applied, following the guidelines of the Course of Statistics, of the "Universidade Federal de São Paulo". RESULTS: among the 189 pregnant women with fetal death, 77 were primigravidal and 76 had already been pregnant 2 to 5 times. The gestational age in 113 women was from 20 to 37 weeks. In relation to parturition, the fetal loss occurred during the antepartum period in 164 of 190 dead fetuses. The most frequently noticed death causes were: abruptio placentae in 35 cases, fetal anomaly in 12 cases, and hypertension syndrome in 8 cases. Nervertheless, there was no explanation for the etiology of 117 cases of fetal death. CONCLUSION: stillbirth has frequently been observed among the primigravidae (40.74%), in preterm period (59.79%), and in the antepartum period (86.31%). Among fetal death causes, the most frequent was a abruptio placentae (18.42%), and in 61.57% of the cases the fetal death could not be explained.
Fetal death; Abruptio placentae; Fetal anomaly; Hypertension
