Introduction and objectives: In Perú, Maternal and neonatal mortality rates are increased by the non-institutional births in rural areas. This is why the study's objective was to determine the prevalence and characteristics of non-institutional births in the province of Ocongate, a rural area located in Cusco, in the highland of Peru, 2015-2016 Methods and materials: An observational case-control study was conducted, which included 46 cases of non-institutional births and 100 controls of institutional births between 2015 and 2016. Gynecological, Obstetric and sociodemographic characteristics are described and analyzed by a bivariate analysis, which was performed with chi square statistical test calculating the Odds Ratio and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) with Multiple Logistic Regression. Results: Forty-nine (8.7%) of the total registered deliveries were non-institutional births. The average age was 25.3 ± 6.4 years. In the multivariate analysis, it was found that: not having any prenatal control [OR = 12.2; 95% CI 4.6-64.9]; having a history of home birth [OR = 4.5; 95% CI 1.01-20.5]; living at a distance of> 90 minutes [OR = 3.2; 95% CI 1.08-10.2]; and having a late uptake of a pregnant woman, are all risk factors for having a non-institutional birth. Conclusions: The majority of women who had non-institutional births was negatively affected by the late pregnancy uptake, a longer travel time to the nearest health center, a previous non-institutional birth and no prenatal control. It is necessary to design strategies to reduce non-institutional births in rural areas of Perú.