This study had as an objective to evaluate the maternal death in the city of Porto Alegre (RS) at the years of 1999, 2000 and 2001. Made part of the population all the women between 10 and 49 years old who died during the pregnancy, on birth or one year from these events. The data was collected from the Information Team about Mortality (Equipe de Informação sobre Mortalidade) and from the Municipal Council of Studies and Prevention of the Maternal Deaths of Porto Alegre (Conselho Municipal de Estudos e Prevençăo das Mortes Maternas de Porto Alegre). The most frequent causes of the maternal death were: infection post-birth (15%) and hypertensive trouble of the pregnancy (15%), followed by illness of the circulatory system/Heart Attack (13%), septicemy (10%) and the causes related to the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) (8%).