Healthcare during the pregnancy-puerperium cycle from the perspective of public service users¹

The aim of this paper was to apprehend the social representations of puerperal women about prenatal, childbirth and puerperal period health care, in a public health service regional context in São Paulo state. The qualitative research approach and Collective Subject Speech were used. Data collection was held by semi-structured interviews, led in 20 municipalities of XI Regional Health Administration Office of Botucatu/SP, in 2004. The humanization look under the social representations apprehended and analyzed makes evident the importance of new directions in politics and regional practices for the puerperal-pregnancy cycle, specially in interpersonal relationships; the essentiality of technical quality in service and the perception of woman as the subject of attention and, as so, must effectively take part in it.