Um corte na alma: como parturientes e doulas significam a violência obstétrica vivenciada em uma maternidade pública de João Pessoa

Abstract

Obstetric violence, understood in this work as a gender violence, suffered by women in a public maternity hospital in the city of João Pessoa, is the central theme of this study, which aims to understand how parturients and doulas signify this violence in childbirth. Using a qualitative approach, five narratives were produced, provoked by a semi-structured script, that served as guiding parameter for the construction of this work. The interviews were carried out with parturients and doulas who suffered or witnessed obstetric violence in the largest public maternity hospital in João Pessoa, an institution chosen for its public character and its importance in providing care to women in the state of Paraíba. The analysis was based on categories, fragmented narratives, which deal with the place of objectification and invisibility that women occupy within the motherhood; On the exercise of women's autonomy in relation to health professionals; On maternity-school as a scenario of teaching of naturalized violence and on the behaviors that physically and psychologically violate women during the birth and postpartum process. The analysis of the speeches shows that the search for information and empowerment was not enough to prevent women from being raped; on the contrary, the attempt to exercise their autonomy by choosing what they wanted or not done with their bodies led them to a situation of Retaliation and denial of care by the professional team. We also saw that feelings such as guilt, isolation, postpartum depression, difficulties of sexual recovery and pelvic pain were present in the reports, being understood by the interviewees as a consequence of the violence suffered at the time of delivery.