This exploratory-descriptive study was developed with the objective to identify the sociodemographic characteristics of couples opting for home birth. There were 25 couples who participated and elected the services from a team of obstetric nurses who attend homebirth, in Florianópolis-SC. The data were got from medical registers which informed about the attendances of the nurses and from semi-structured interviews with the practitioners' couples of planned home birth, being realized a descriptive analysis of the profile obtained. It was found that most couples were people with higher education, stable relationship, reside in their own home and have job security. A great number of the participants were not born in Florianópolis and some of them came from other places just to give birth in Florianópolis. It can be concluded that the choice of home birth is linked to the revaluation of the home environment rather than a rescue of the past.
Home childbirth; Obstetrical nursing; Population characteristics
