Introduction:

Maternal mortality (MM) is one of the health indicators that most clearly demonstrates gender inequality in decision-making and social exclusion, since it demands urgent medical intervention aimed at preventing death.

Objective:

To expose the magnitude and trend of MM in Ambato between 2005 and 2014.

Materials and methods:

Observational, descriptive, retrospective and cross-sectional study of maternal deaths in Ambato between 2005 and 2014. The study universe consisted of 46 maternal deaths and 51 947 live births.

Results:

There was a significant increase in the birth rate (r=0.652, p=0.041) and in the number of live births with professional assistance (r=0.894, p=0.000). The cumulative MM ratio in the period was 88.6, with a non-significant downward trend (r=0.12 p=0.743). Hypertensive disease of pregnancy was the first direct cause of MM (n=17, 41.5%).

Conclusions:

Birth rates have been on the rise and the trend of MM over 10 years has not shown significant changes. Hypertensive disease of pregnancy remains the main cause of MM.

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