OBJETIVOS: to evaluate mother's (adults and adolescents) feelings and perceptions about their infants and the obstetric-neonatal care in a terciary level teaching hospital. METHODS: cross-sectional survey. 180 mothers were interviewed two and three days postpartum, in the maternity wards and nurseries of the Hospital das Clínicas- Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu and distributed in three groups: adult multiparous, adult primiparous and adolescents. chi2 test or Fisher test were used to compare groups and wards, alpha = 5%. RESULTS: obstetric ultrasound and cardiotocography had positive impacts on maternal emotion. Small differences were determined between the three groups related to their feelings before and following delivery. Prevalent feelings were: love, happiness, responsibility, anxiety and fear. Guilt was frequent among adolescents in the maternity wards. Mothers' perception of babies, their evaluation of postnatal care and caregivers were the same for adult and adolescent mothers. In both maternity wards mothers and caregivers related well, mothers were happy with the neonatal care they were receiving and with their caregivers; however breast feeding was not valued enough and few mothers knew who their doctors were. CONCLUSIONS: a more humane approach for mothers and newborns is taking place at the university hospital but some aspects could be improved on specially pertaining to focus on breastfeeding and a more personal contact between doctors and patients.
Perception; Adolescent; Emotions; Postnatal care; Maternal and child health
