OBJECTIVES: to evaluate the quality of childbirth care in two public maternity referral hospitals in the municipality of Maringá, Paraná. METHODS: a cross-sectional study was carried out using medical records and interviews with 569 women. Seven process indicators were used, four relating to labor and three to delivery. By establishing scores for each the indicators, hospital care was classified into four levels: excellent, good, regular and unsatisfactory. The kind of delivery was considered to be a result indicator. Analysis was carried out using the Excel and Statistica software and the results submitted to the chi-squared and Student’s t test. RESULTS: 1.0% of women received excellent care; 28.9% good; 52.7% regular; and 17.4% unsatisfactory. In terms of average scores, hospital 1 performed better than hospital 2. Caesarian birth was prevalent in both hospitals, with rates of over 50%. CONCLUSIONS: the performance of the hospitals was classified as regular and the result of care unsatisfactory, given the high prevalence of caesarian births.
Maternal and child health; Humanizing delivery; Quality indicators; health care
