causes of maternal mortality in pregnant women in urban and rural areas of ilam, iran

background: the occurrence of maternal death would threaten the family foundation and children's health. determining important factors affecting this indicator can help us adopt strategies to prevent similar deaths. the aim of this study was to determine the causes of maternal deaths during childbirth in ilam, iran  in 2001-10. methods: in a descriptive, retrospective study, all 25 dead mothers and 388 mothers who were alive after pregnancy were selected using multistage sampling. the data was collected from family files and analyzed by chi-square and t-tests and logistic regression analysis in spss 16 . findings: the main cause of maternal death was bleeding. deaths were most common during the first 48 hours after delivery. significant relationships were observed between maternal mortality and the variables of education, quality of care during pregnancy, high risk pregnancy, underlying diseases, and number of pregnancies. a significant direct relationship was also detected between having an underlying disease and high risk pregnancy. in addition, an inverse relationship was found between quality of received care and maternal mortality. conclusion: increasing the coverage and quality of care before and during pregnancy, and also after delivery, quality of family planning counseling, and improving the skills and knowledge of the medical and midwifery staff would be effective in reducing maternal mortality rates.