Journal of

Introduction: Prenatal mortality rate is regarded as an important index of health in a community. In order to maintain and promote health of infants, as a vulnerable group, factors affecting prenatal mortality need to be identified and appropriate strategies should be designed. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the causes of prenatal mortality on the basis of babies’ record in hospitals of Yazd province.

Methods: This descriptive study was conducted using the available data in the files. The study population entailed children who were born dead in 2012 in 15 medical centers in Yazd or who were born alive after 22 weeks of pregnancy, but died within 29 days after the birth. Causes of death were extracted from the files  according to the related doctor’s opinion.

Results: A total of 390 perinatal deaths were registered in Yazd hospital. The perinatal mortality rate was reported 14 out of 1000 alive births. The most common causes of perinatal mortality belonged to respiratory distress syndrome (42.05 %), late delivery (22.7 %), as well as abruption (4.6%) in regard with fetus- recorded,  mother-recorded, and  placenta-recorded causes respectively.

Conclusion: Emphasizing prenatal care, detecting and tracking  high risk pregnancies as well as developing neonatal intensive care units might be taken into account as the most important factors in prevention of prenatal death.