Meanings attributed to planned home birth by obstetric nurses working in a hospital setting

Objective: to understand how obstetric nurses working in a hospital environment perceive planned home births. Method: qualitative, descriptive, exploratory study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 obstetric nurses working at the Regional Reference Hospital in the state of Pará, Brazil, between January and May 2024, using the Snowball Sampling recruitment technique. The data were analyzed using Content Analysis, with the support of ATLAS.ti 22.7 software. Results: the perceptions of obstetric nurses showed prejudice, judgment, value judgments, inequality in access, maintenance of the biometric and hospital-centered obstetric model, and the absence of a national policy to encourage home birth. Conclusion: there is a need to reform the current obstetric model and ensure access to home birth for all Brazilian women, thereby contributing to the strengthening of practices and autonomy among obstetric nurses, the primary professionals involved in home birth care.