title: [Practices of maternal and perinatal care performed in public hospitals of Uruguay].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Quality of care can be measured by the rate of use of beneficial and ineffective or deleterious practices.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To perform a survey of the use of maternal and perinatal care practices in public maternities of Uruguay, and to know the opinions and perspectives of the users concerning some of these practices.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional hospital based descriptive study. For the prevalence study, a questionnaire filled with data taken from hospital records and a women survey were used. For the opinion study, a women questionnaire during early postpartum period was done.
  
  
  RESULTS
  773 women from 12 hospitals were enrolled in the study. The rate of administration of corticosteroids in women with risk of preterm delivery was < or = 40%. Periconceptional folic acid administration, psychosocial support during labour, active management during the third stage of labour, and supine position of the newborn, showed rates of utilization lower than 35%. Episiotomy and perineal shaving showed rates of use higher than 50%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Some evidence-based beneficial health care practices are still not routinely implemented in public hospitals. Ineffective and even harmful practices are still used.
authors.affiliation: Centro Latinoamericano de Perinatología y Desarrollo Humano, Organización Panamericana de la Salud, Organización Mundial de la Salud, Montevideo, Uruguay.
authors.forename: Mercedes
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Colomar
authors.forename: María
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Belizán
authors.forename: María Luisa
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Cafferata
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Labandera
authors.forename: Giselle
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tomasso
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Althabe
authors.forename: José M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Belizán
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006779:Hospitals, Public; D006801:Humans; D011181:Postnatal Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D011295:Prenatal Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014583:Uruguay