A qualitative study of socio-historical approach aiming to analyze the practices developed by nurses with newborns in the Maternity Carmela Dutra, Florianópolis - SC, from 1956 to 2001. The study subject were nine nurses who worked in the Maternity in the period demarcated. The data were categorized using thematic content analysis based on Foucaultian referential. Three categories emerged: The baby was born and passed through a window to the nursery; the mothers were not owners of their children; the premature was very well wrapped up and taken from the delivery room for the high-risk nursery. The results showed that the practices of care provided to newborns have gone through many major and challenging transformations for nurses. The results allow us to know the daily work of nurses, illuminating the interior of care practices and the relations of power-knowledge, strengthening their identity and contributing to the professional construction.
Obstetrical Nursing; Neonatal Nursing; History of Nursing; Child Health