Background: The death of women during pregnancy, childbirth or puerperium, remains a serious public health problem worldwide. Chile is committed to comply with the Millennium 5th Goal of reducing maternal mortality to 9.9/100,000 live births in 2015. Aim: To analyze trends in maternal mortality in Chile during 2000-2009. Material and Methods: A descriptive population analysis using raw data obtained from the yearbooks of the National Institute of Statistics of Chile. Maternal mortality, causes of death and age of the dead mothers were evaluated. The causes of maternal death were classified according to the tenth revision of International Classification of Diseases. Trend studies were performed using Pearson correlation analysis. Results: In the studied period there were no significant changes in maternal mortality and fertility. The five major causes of maternal death were concurrent diseases, hypertension, abortion, obstetric embolism and postpartum hemorrhage. Mortality associated with concurrent illness showed a significant upward trend (r = 0.656, p = 0.035). Abortion associated mortality had a significant downward trend (r = -0.712, p = 0.023). The group of women 40 years and older significantly increased its birth rate (r = 0.930, p < 0.001), this group showed the highest maternal mortality, especially in association with concurrent diseases. Conclusions: The increased birth rate occurring in women over 40 years old and its larger maternal mortality rate, probably will hinder the fulfillment of the Millennium 5th goal in Chile. (Rev Med Chile 2012; 140: 1253-1262).