Urgencia obstétrica y saber popular en Tenejapa, Chiapas

objective: to establish the degree of awareness among the population who are old enough to have children regarding the signs and symptoms of obstetric urgency in an indigenous community. another objective was to find out about the health care options chosen by the population in the event of a complication during pregnancy. material and method: it was carried out a sampling for conglomerates in towns of the county of tenejapa, chiapas. in the four selected towns a census was applied to know the number of men and women in reproductive age. the selection of informants, to those that were applied the survey, was carried out through aleatory numbers. besides including in the survey questions in those that the knowledge were investigated on the signs and symptoms of obstetric urgency, one investigates that is on those significant considered variables in the practices of interest: age, sex, education, children's number, knowledge of spanish language, use of health services and the regularity with the people listen the radio. results: we interviewed to 417 people, with a rate of non answer of 13%.the research shows that an important part of population (50%) doesn't recognize the signs of an obstetric urgency. it also shows that despite the fact that intention to access health care services is high, many people don't do it. it is also acknowledged that midwives continue to have a very important role during maternal care. professional health care is not available in this municipality or it is a long distance away. therefore, attention of obstetric urgency should be given priority status.