title: Social representations of obstetricians and neonatologists about fetal and early neonatal death certificate in the city of São Paulo.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The insatisfactory completeness of the variables in the Death Certificate (DC) makes it difficult to obtain specific perinatal mortality indicators.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To assess the social representation of physicians about the perinatal DC.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-five physicians were interviewed in 15 hospitals in the city of São Paulo, in 2009. Qualitative analysis was performed with the Collective Subject Discourse technique.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The DC is primarily considered according to its legal aspect. Physicians feel responsible for fulfilling the cause of death. The majority of them reported receiving help from other professionals to complete information on maternal characteristics and identification variables. There is lack of information on the mother's pre-natal conditions, which can make it difficult to identify the perinatal cause of death, mainly in the Unified Health System (SUS) hospitals. Some participants received specific DC training only when attending medical schools.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The organization of medical work may affect the completion of the DC, especially in hospitals from SUS. Other professionals contributed to this task and their training can improve the quality of information.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Epidemiologia, Faculdade de Saúde Pública, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brasil.
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schoeps
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Prática de Saúde Pública, Faculdade de Saúde Pública, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brasil.
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lefevre
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Epidemiologia, Faculdade de Saúde Pública, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brasil.
authors.forename: Zilda Pereira
authors.initials: ZP
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Medicina Preventiva, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brasil.
authors.forename: Hillegonda Maria Dutilh
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Novaes
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Epidemiologia, Faculdade de Saúde Pública, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brasil.
authors.forename: Priscila Ribeiro
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Raspantini
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Epidemiologia, Faculdade de Saúde Pública, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brasil.
authors.forename: Márcia Furquim
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: de Almeida
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001938:Brazil; D002947:Cities; D003644:Death Certificates; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D009359:Neonatology; D009774:Obstetrics; D066087:Perinatal Death; D012938:Social Perception; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires