Centered group: a study with women experiencing pregnancy-puerperal cycle

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Understanding the group guided by the Person-Centered Approach (PCA) with women who experience the pregnancy-puerperal cycle, in the Sistema Único de Saúde – SUS (Brazilian National Health System) context. METHOD: Qualitative research of phenomenological inspiration using the PCA framework as a guide for the study. Information was collected through groups, in four face-to-face meetings between May and June 2022, using the Sense’s Version (SV's) and Phenomenological Interview (PI), with the information organized in Sense Axes and understood from the premises of the PCA in dialogue with studies linked to emerging themes. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The Axes created from the SV’s showed aspects and tendencies which are typical of the development of a group based on the PCA; described the group as a welcoming space and experiential freedom, in which the expression of significant experiences related to pregnancy, childbirth and puerperium was facilitated; they also presented, the sense that the group experience was constituted as a promoter of exchanges and mutual support, of development and significant learning. The Axes formulated based on the PI, revealed that the women understood participation in the group as a positive experience, which provided care for emotional aspects, boosting self-knowledge and development; and a facilitator of constructive changes in the experience of motherhood. CONCLUSION: The study demonstrated the viability of a group centered on comprehensive care for women’s health in the pregnancy-puerperal period between the PCA principles and those that guide the SUS care practice.