PREGNANT AND POSTPARTUM WOMEN IN THE PRISON CONTEXT: AN EXPERIENCE REPORT

Abstract

The national growth of the female inmate population and the absence of effective public policies that demand has raised questions of managers, educators and practitioners on the health actions provided in the prison system. A qualitative, descriptive and exploratory research aimed to analyze the perception of pregnant and postpartum women prisoners on the prison setting was performed. The study setting was a female penitentiary complex in the city of Salvador / BA, the subjects were 06 female prisoners. For data collection, there were workshops and semi-structured interviews after full approval by the research ethics committee. For data collection workshops and semi-structured interviews were conducted. We used the thematic analysis of Bardin which is comprised of: a) pre analysis; b) exploration of the material and the processing of the results; c) inference and interpretation. And the following categories were listed: Deficit of knowledge of care during pregnancy and postpartum; Disfavoring environment for pregnancy from the structural and psychological aspects; Feelings about separation from their children. The data showed that the actions of healthcare provided to pregnant and postpartum women prisoners are deficient, especially in regard to the monitoring of pregnancy and childbirth and to support the separation of the binomial; Regarding the environment, the structural aspects are not conducive to the welfare of these women. Thus it is understood that a restructuring of health attendance of pregnant or postpartum women in detention contributing to the strengthening of improving the quality of care for convict woman, in view of the practical and humanistic behaviors, in line with the programs is necessary and policies of the Ministry of Health.