Determinants of neonatal death with emphasis on health care during pregnancy, childbirth and reproductive history

Objective: To identify risk factors for neonatal mortality, focusing on factors related to assistance care during the prenatal period, childbirth, and maternal reproductive history. Methods: This was a case-control study conducted in Maceio, Northeastern Brazil. The sample consisted of 136 cases and 272 controls selected from official Brazilian databases. The cases consisted of all infants who died before 28 days of life, selected from the Mortality Information System, and the controls were survivors during this period, selected from the Information System on Live Births, by random drawing among children born on the same date of the case. Household interviews were conducted with mothers. Results: The logistic regression analysis identified the following as determining factors for death in the neonatal period: mothers with a history of previous children who died in the first year of life (OR = 3.08), hospitalization during pregnancy (OR = 2.48), inadequate prenatal care (OR = 2.49), lack of ultrasound examination during prenatal