The literature about parental cognitions has been indicating that mothers from different contexts and with differences in the educational level tend to shows different beliefs. The present study has as objective investigates the parental cognitions in mothers from two different contexts. The sample was formed by 100 primiparous mothers, being 50 from urban context and 50 from no-urban context. The participants answered to the Questionnaire of beliefs about maternal practices. The data were analyzed in agreement with the categories proposed by the authors of the instrument. The results indicated that the mothers of the two contexts differed as the age, education and value of the scores in the evaluation of beliefs on maternal practices. The level of maternal education was correlated positively with the age, with the scores of the evaluation of the practices. It was verified that the mothers from two contexts resemble each other as for the level of importance attributed the some practices, but they differ in relation to other and that they present the same order of valorization of the dimensions of beliefs. The results found corroborate data of the national literature that it has been indicating that the Brazilian mothers tend to value practices related to stimulation. These results contribute to the enlargement of the understanding of the Brazilian mothers' cognitions and to strengthen the evidence of the effects of the context and of the education on the parental cognitions.