The purpose of this work is to identify the place where the father is at the time his son/daughter is being born and his perceptions about this place. This study has a qualitative nature and the Minayo's (1996) reference of speech analisys is used. In order to do it, twenty-three fathers whose children have been born within the present year were interviewed. The approach was direct and they were interviewed in public places. We verified that only seven fathers were present at the moment of parturition, and that among them, only one had his wife's delivery assisted by the SUS. The other interviewed fathers were absent from their children's birthplace. The conclusion is that in spite of all the encouragement given to the father by the correspondent bibliography to be present at the moment of his children's birth for a precocious father-baby interaction, reality shows us that, especially in hospitals where onecan be assisted by the SUS, men are excluded from this very important moment.
father; waiting place; father's perceptions; repercussions; SUS