OBSTETRIC VIOLENCE: PAINFUL EXPERIENCES AMONG BRAZILIAN LABORING WOMEN

Abstract

This text aimed to do a literature review on obstetric violence practices occurred in hospitals during childbirth and its implications on subjective well-being of women and social relations that set up these practices. A research for articles related to the topic was made on the electronic databases Lilacs and Scielo, which were grouped into three main themes. In the first part of the text we analyzed the historical and social basis related to the development of this violence, highlighting the relationships of power and domination frommedicine and male chauvinism in the elaboration of these care practices. The medicine, through the pathologization of birth and its consequent medicalization takes control of this process and objectifies the women, who lose autonomy over their bodies and suffer physical, psychological and sexual abuse in maternity hospitals. Then, instead of health care and mental care relations, the ones built are those of oppression inside these institutions. In the second part of this work we aimed to identify and describe how these different forms of violence are reiterated in the routine of health services and naturalized in assistance flows. Several women who experienced these aggressions and sufferings originated by these practices were heard through interview. The third part of this text addressed the birth humanization policies that are being encouraged by the Brazilian Ministry of Health since 2000 with the National Policy for Humanized Childbirth.