Objective:

to describe the social representations puerperal women have about the care they received during labor and delivery.

Methodology:

this is a descriptive study, based on the Theory of the Central Nucleus, which was undertaken with 119 women in the postpar-tum period in a public maternity hospital, located in the city of Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil. The data were collected through the Free Word Association Test, which included as inductive stimuli: care, labor, delivery and care in labor and delivery. The data were transcribed and analyzed with Evoc software.

Results:

the structural analysis showed that the words "pain", "happiness" and "guidance" ocurred more frequency as a central feature of the respective inducing terms.

Conclusion:

the results confirm that the moment of labor and delivery is crucial for nurses in the planning and implementation of adequate care during parturition insofar, as such measures lessen the impact of negative representations of childbirth.

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