The objective was to evaluate the childcare actions in the neonatal period from the strategies recommended by the Ministry of Health. Cross-sectional study carried out from the database of the national population-based survey entitled "Chamada Neonatal" (Neonatal Call--in English): assessment of attention to prenatal care and to children under one year in the North and Northeast, which happened in the nine priority municipalities for the Pact of reducing child mortality and Neonatal in Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil with 837 mother/child pairs. The variables were composed by issues/actions regarding the neonatal period, followed by a descriptive and inferential analysis. The whole database sample was used, composed of 57.6% in the capital and 42.4% in all the interiors. The frequency of hospital environment actions ranges from 35% to 96% and those carried out in primary care from 57% to 91.2%. Most are associated with the nature of public hospitals and the state capital, and the actions of care for continuity of care and better economic conditions (p <0.05). Not all actions met the totality of what is advocated in the programs and childcare policies, and reveals regional inequalities in healthcare.