Objectives:
to understand the organizational context of the Live Births Information System (Sinasc), in the municipalities of the Brazilian State of Minas Gerais (MG), in 2010.
Methods:
a qualitative study was carried out in municipalities with health services where births occurred which adopted a decentralized Sinasc. Thirty health workers were interviewed and their comments submitted to thematic content analysis.
Results:
the categories analyzed were the importance of information for health management, the technical management of information and organizational features. The health workers interviewed considered Sinasc to be the best decentralized information system, but remarked that information produced by health surveillance is undervalued and underused. Poor professional training, limited infrastructure and information production and management were seen to be shortcomings of the Sinasc system.
Conclusions:
despite progress in the decentralization of the Sinasc, municipal services have encountered problems relating to the production and management of data. There is a need for greater institutional support, improved material resources, human resource and procedure management, appropriate for information collection and the use of this information to monitor, evaluate and plan maternity services.
Live births; Information systems; Organization; Evaluation