OBJECTIVE: To characterize the mothers of neonates who underwent the newborn hearing screening (TAN) in a regional referral hospital in Rio Grande do Sul. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was carried out in TAN service of this hospital, from April to December of 2011. The participants were 1022 mothers who responded to a questionnaire on sociodemographic research, conducting pre-natal and knowledge about TAN. RESULTS: The mean age of mothers was 26 years. As for education, 32.19% have secondary education, elementary education 27.79% and 3.03% have a university degree. Regarding the occupation, 52.05% reported being a housewife. Regarding marital status, 57.24% of mothers are single, 30.57% married, 8.40% are stable and 3.72% are widowed or divorced. 63.57% of the mothers had prenatal care monthly, and only 1.86% did not. Of the mothers, 54.21% have more than one child, and of these 39.89% were other children in the TAN. 47.85% had knowledge of the TAN after the birth of the current child and is informed by 33.86% and 34.25% by the Pediatric Nursing. CONCLUSION: The main sociodemographic characteristics of the study were young adult mothers to complete high school, housewives, single and with more than one child. Most held prenatal, however, information on the TAN was given in the hospital. The identification of these characteristics is important to direct actions of speech therapy in primary health care, contributing to improved attention to structure the program hearing health in the region.