[Adherence to best care practices in normal birth: construction and validation of an instrument].

Objective: To describe the stages of construction and validation of an instrument in order to analyze the adherence to best care practices during labour and birth.

Method: Methodological research, carried out in three steps: construction of dimensions and items, face and content validity and semantic analysis of the items.

Results: The face and content validity was carried out by 10 judges working in healthcare, teaching and research. Items with Content Validity Index (CVI) ≥ 0.9 were kept in full or undergone revisions as suggested by the judges. Semantic analysis, performed twice, indicated that there was no difficulty in understanding the items.

Conclusion: The instrument with three dimensions (organization of healthcare network to pregnancy and childbirth, evidence-based practices and work processes) followed the steps recommended in the literature, concluded with 50 items and total CVI of 0.98.