óbitos perinatais investigados e falhas na assistência hospitalar ao parto

to analyze the shortcomings in hospital care delivery, the maternal profile and characteristics of the fetus and newborn that died perinatally, in belo horizonte. methods: cross sectional study of perinatal deaths investigated by the committee for the prevention of deaths of belo horizonte, which occurred between 2003 and 2007. the data source was the committee's investigation forms. data were analyzed by frequency distribution of variables and the bivariate analysis used the chi-square test, considering the significance level of 5% (p <0.05). results: we studied 253 deaths, most born at term with adequate weight infants. in 65.6% of cases there were gaps in care, mainly related to the monitoring of pregnant women during labor and delivery. conclusions: we identified a high percentage of failures in the process of care delivery and a great potential avoidability of perinatal deaths.