“…Given that in Hermosillo, 3 out of 4 in-fant deaths occur during the perinatal period, it is essential for public health interventions to accurately determine the CODs in this category. This is a growing challenge, exacerbated by the fact that (1) most vital statistics systems in Mexico have failed to establish assurance/ quality control programs linking death certificate information with birth data, such as mother's obstetric history and last pregnancy, and (2) the current death certificate is not designed to capture clinical or epidemiological peculiarities occurring in the perinatal period, including short gestational age and low birth weight, as recommended in the ICD-10 (11,33). Equally important is the need to assess problems in the process of assigning CODs of perinatal deaths, with particular focus on the use of codes P20, P21, and P07 (corresponding to intrauterine hypoxia, birth asphyxia, and disorders related to short gestation and low birth weight, respectively).…”