The main purpose of the present thesis was to elucidate the cause and circumstances that surround maternal deaths occurring in Hospital Central de Maputo (HCM).The specific aims were 1. To identify the major causes of direct maternal deaths, and utilizing the audit approach to address the avoidability aspect in each case, 2. To estimate the contribution of malaria to maternal mortality, 3. To compare the main causes of direct and indirect maternal death in adolescents with those in non adolescents, and the prevalence of risk factor used in antenatal cards with the intention to identify high risk pregnancy among such women, 4. To review pregnancy-related deaths due to injuries in HCM and to elucidate the contribution of violence (homicide and suicide) to these deaths, 5.to estimate the trends of maternal mortality in a ten year period, with special reference to adolescents and to compare the contribution of induced abortion to maternal mortality in two periods in which different policies regarding abortion were applied.