Childbirth dynamics in the riverside region of the Brazilian Amazon from the perspective of geospatialization.

OBJECTIVE

to analyze the spatial-temporal pattern of childbirths and flow of postpartum women assisted at a regional reference maternity hospital.

METHODS

ecological study of 4,081 childbirths, between September 2018 and December 2021, at a public maternity hospital in the Baixo Tocantins region, Pará, Brazil. With data collected from five sources, a geographic database was constructed, and spatial analysis was used with Kernel density interpolator. Maps were generated using QGis/3.5 and TerraView/4.3, calculating chi-square (p<0.05).

RESULTS

the highest concentrations of normal and cesarean childbirths were observed in Barcarena (n=2,558/62.68%), Abaetetuba (n=750/18.38%), Moju (n=363/8.89%) and Igarapé-Miri (n=219/5.37%). Among the municipalities in the region, ten had obstetric beds, totaling 210 beds. In this scenario, postpartum women traveled up to 288 km to reach the maternity hospital.

CONCLUSIONS

long distances between certain municipalities of residence and maternity hospital, and low supply of obstetric beds, were identified as risk factors for unfavorable obstetric outcomes.