IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SAFE CHILDBIRTH CHECKLIST: STRATEGY TO REDUCE ADVERSE OBSTETRIC AND NEONATAL EVENTS.
Maternal and Child Health Services; Checklist; Quality of Health Care; Patient Safety.
Introduction: Although pregnancy is a physiological process, it involves
vulnerabilities that require qualified, safe, and humanized care. In Brazil, maternal and neonatal
morbidity and mortality rates remain high, especially in regions such as the Northeast, revealing
weaknesses in care processes. The Safe Childbirth Checklist (SCC) emerges as an essential tool
to strengthen good practices and prevent adverse events, and integrating pregnant women into
this process may enhance safety and further improve the quality of care during childbirth and
birth.Objective: To improve the quality of care in childbirth and birth, centered on the Safe
Childbirth Checklist (SCC) and the participation of pregnant women.Method: This is a
healthcare quality improvement study with a quasi-experimental design, without a control
group, and with pre- and post-intervention data collection, developed in the context of
childbirth and birth care. The intervention consists of implementing the Safe Childbirth
Checklist, recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), as a strategy to strengthen
safe practices and reduce the occurrence of obstetric and neonatal adverse events in a
philanthropic maternity hospital in the countryside of the state of Ceará. The study will be
conducted based on the quality improvement cycle model proposed by Saturno (2015), which
guides project development through the following stages: a) Identification of improvement
opportunities; b) Analysis of the causes of the problem; c) Adaptation of the SCC; d) Baseline
analysis; e) Intervention planning; f) Implementation of interventions; g) Evaluation of results;
h) Standardization and dissemination of best practices.Preliminary Results: A delay in the
detection of obstetric and neonatal complications, associated with the occurrence of adverse
events, was identified as an opportunity for improvement. Among the main causes, modifiable
factors stood out, such as the absence of standardized protocols, failures in implementing the
safe childbirth protocol, inadequate prioritization of high-risk pregnant women, and low
adherence to checklists and risk scores. As a strategy, the adaptation of the Safe Childbirth
Checklist (SCC) was proposed, combined with updates to protocols and the birth plan,
considering the local context. It was also observed that the checklist is predominantly used in a
bureaucratic manner, highlighting the need to strengthen its use as a tool for patient safety.