Relaxation environment for the humanization of hospital delivery care

Abstract

In the public maternity hospital of the city of Rio de Janeiro, connected to the obstetrics unit, an environment of care for parturients was implemented, called the relaxation room. The obstetrics unit still maintains its traditional architecture, with two distinct settings for labor and delivery assistance. The labor room provides little privacy for the parturients due to a lack of cubicles for individual care, but there are curtains to separate the hospital beds. To investigate this experience, a qualitative study was proposed, which aimed to describe the criteria used by nurses to indicate the relaxation environment for parturients and to analyze the meanings, for nurse-midwives, of the care provided in this environment. Twelve nurses were interviewed, and the interview transcripts were submitted to thematic content analysis. The criteria to indicate the relaxation room were grouped under thefollowing themes: needs and desires of the parturients, favorable obstetric criteria, and unfavorable environmental conditions in the delivery process. The meanings of obstetrical nursing care within this relaxation environment were grouped as follows: respecting the rights of women in obstetric care, promoting comfort, and encouraging natural childbirth. The relaxation room is an initiative of obstetric nurses to ensure the principles and values of humanized care in the hospital environment. The traditional environment of the obstetric care unit requires changes for the humanization of care and the comfort to become the right of all parturients and to encourage natural childbirth.