Transition of the environment model in hospitals that deliver in Rede Cegonha

This article analyzes the environment of birth places, considering the presence of PCP room (Prepartum, Childbirth, and Postpartum) in 575 hospitals that deliver in Sistema Único de Saúde (Unified Health System) within the scope of Rede Cegonha. The data were extracted from a survey called Avaliação da atenção ao parto e nascimento nas maternidades da Rede Cegonha (Assessment of childbirth and birth care in the Rede Cegonha maternity units), carried out in 2017 by UFMA and ENSP, in partnership with the Ministry of Health. The PCP room model combines care for parturient women in a single space, favoring the role of women and the exercise of good practices in childbirth and birth care. The information was obtained by direct observation in the services, and assessment considered the presence and adequacy of PCP rooms and their distribution according to the pre-childbirth environment, which were compared with specific characteristics of these hospitals. Collective rooms for childbirths prevail and only 16.8% of beds are PCP rooms. This picture suggests difficulties in resource management, resistance to changes and insufficiencies in institutional support, which have hampered the transition from the childbirth environment model in Brazilian hospitals. The Brazilian obstetric and neonatal field has lived a fertile period, but it is necessary to build and sustain political-institutional disposition to advance the changes.