Obstetrical nurse development at Universidade de Pernambuco, Brazil: a 35-year history

Aiming at presenting the social, professional, legal and educational contexts which have founded the curriculum reforms in the Obstetrical Nursing major and specialization, the 35-year teaching history, experienced in the Nossa Senhora das Graças Nursing School of the Universidade de Pernambuco, in the city of Recife, Brazil, built based on documental analysis. The syllabuses of four reformulations performed in the Obstetrical Nursing major and two syllabuses of specialization courses in the same area, with explanation of the guiding framework of the reformulations concerned with humanized attention towards labor and birth. The historical evolution of this experience demonstrates how the university can build the social awareness role in the faculty, which can improve life quality of puerperae and their children, awarding them the right to perform their citizenship