[Maternal mortality. Evolution of its study in Mexico over the past 25 years]

Traditionally it has been said that pregnancy and delivery are natural, physiological processes that should develop without problems for the mother. However, both may produce severe complications, that may cause death of the woman with a variable frequency, according to several factors such as availability and quality of obstetrical care, as well as population characteristics, that are special one in our country, as most of it belongs to the so called open population, as they do not have medical services at Social Security Institutions, and of private medicine, and so, they belong to the lowest socio-economical condition, and because of this, mortality incidence is high, with rates between 90.30 and 57.15 for 100,000 births, which are quite different from the ones for developed countries, from 9 and 30 per 100,000 births; so, it can be said that Maternal Mortality rates for a certain country, show its development degree.