The aim of this study was to characterize hospital care for childbirth in two hospitals affiliated with the Unified National Health System in Maringá, Paraná, Brazil, and identify both obstacles and facilitating factors for the implementation of humanized care, based on women's perception of the care received. This was an exploratory and descriptive study with a cross-sectional design, analyzing hospital patient charts and interviews with 569 women who gave birth at the two hospitals from March 2005 to February 2006. Hospital care was characterized on the basis of WHO quality-of-care guidelines for labor and delivery. The data pointed to a healthcare model marked by the hygienist legacy in physician-centered hospital protocols and professional practices. Institutional factors, identified as difficulties in institutional and infrastructure organization, hospital protocols, and health professionals' individual practices and stances, denote barriers that jointly hinder the implementation of a humanized model for childbirth care.
Parturition; Maternal-Child Health Services; Humanization of Assistance; Professional Practice
