The purpose of this article was to contextualize historically the advent of the Brazilian Ministry of Health's Prenatal and Birth Humanization Program. Its conceptual, philosophical and operational aspects were pointed out through situation and documental analysis. The Program, launched in June 2000, has as its main strategy to guarantee better access, coverage and quality in prenatal care, birth and puerperal care to pregnant women and newborns from a citizen's rights perspective. The Program is based on the right to humanization of obstetric and neonatal care as the first prerequisite for adequate follow-up, besides establishing criteria for classification of care and promotion of a bond between outpatient care and the moment of delivery, integrated and with interventions that had strong evidence of being effective. The article presents the Brazilian scenario of prenatal care at the end of nineties, discuss the principles of humanization as requirement for the quality of care, reconstitutes the design and launch of the Program, besides commenting practical aspects of its initial evaluation and challenges for the future.
Prenatal care; Humanizing delivery; Maternal welfare; Maternal and child health
