Assessment of delivery and childbirth care in the maternity units of rede cegonha: The methodological paths

Abstract

This article describes the methodolo-gy used to evaluate delivery and childbirth care practices in maternity hospitals that belong to the Rede Cegonha, according to scientific evidence and rights guarantee. It shows the maternity se-lection criteria, the evaluated guidelines, their de-vices and check items, the method used to collect information and the treatment of data to obtain the results. It discusses the chosen guidelines and the strategy of returning results to managers and services and discusses their potential to foster management qualification processes and obstetric and neonatal care. This is a study of delivery and childbirth care practices of 606 maternity hospitals selected for the second evaluation cycle of the Rede Cegonha. The methodological paths stood out for the construction of tripartite co-responsibility for the process and the evaluation results, with an emphasis on its usefulness for the decision-makers and the hospital institutions involved.