Access to care during labor and delivery and safety to maternal health

OBJECTIVE: to analyze the time of access to care during labor and delivery and the safety of maternal health. METHOD: cross-sectional analytical study, carried out in five maternity hospitals, four of which are of habitual and intermediate risk and one of high risk. For data collection, data from the maternal medical record and interviews with the puerperal woman were used. In the data analysis, the Chi-square test (p≤0.05) was performed to search for possible associations between the independent variables - model three delays and dependents [Adverse maternal outcomes], [Knowledge about labor/delivery] and [Service satisfaction]. RESULTS: statistical significance was observed between the adverse maternal outcome and the delay in looking for a health service (p = 0.005) and the delay in transport to the maternity hospital (p = 0.050), while the outcome knowledge about labor/delivery showed statistical association with delay in looking for a health service (p = 0.048). There was no statistically significant difference between the three delays model and satisfaction with the care. CONCLUSION: the women’s knowledge about labor and delivery and the time of access to obstetric care negatively interferes with the maternal outcome at delivery, which directly impacts maternal health safety.