Introduction: There are evidence that maternal-fetal mortality from preventable causes is high, which demonstrates that prenatal care has flaws. Objectives: Check if reasons for referral to high-risk prenatal care coincide with those recommended by the Ministry of Health. Methods: This is a crosssectional study with quantitative analysis, involving 195 medical records with electronic data collection. Data were collected in a Basic Health Unit from Criciúma through access to the Celk Saúde system and analyzed with SPSS. Statistical tests were performed with a significance level of α = 0.05, and therefore, 95% confidence interval. Results: Among the referrals, 136 presented high gestational risk, and the remaining 59 did not meet the criteria. The most prevalent adequate reasons were arterial hypertension (11.8%), thyriod disorders (7. 2%) and gestational diabetes (6.2%). The most inappropriate prevalent criteria were obstetric history of abortion (<=2) (6.15%), changes in ultrasound (4.1%) an bleeding (4.1%). Conclusion:There is a significant inadequacy of referrals to highrisk prenatal care, wicth could be avoided with more knowledge of recommendations from the Ministry of Health by health professionals.