Análise do nível de conhecimento de estudantes do curso de fisioterapia acerca da Fisioterapia Obstétrica

Abstract

The Physical Therapy course has several areas of activity, and because it is considerably recent, there are still doubts and even ignorance of a good part of the population about its performance in certain specialties. Regarding the area of Obstetric Physical Therapy, many do not understand that the professional can and should act in different moments of a woman's life. It is an area of great scientific effectiveness and which plays an extremely important role throughout the gestational period, in labor and in the puerperium. Physiotherapeutic follow-up is essential and brings several benefits such as pain relief, reduction in the number of cesarean sections, prevention and treatment of muscle dysfunctions, reestablishment of postpartum bodily functions, women's body awareness work, among others. With this, it is extremely important to disclose when, where and how Physiotherapy can act in pregnancy and after the birth of the baby. Such knowledge must be triggered since graduation, so this study was carried out with the objective of verifying the knowledge of undergraduates of the Physical Therapy course at the Universade Federal da Paraíba (UFPB) in João Pessoa-PB, about the performance of Obstetric Physical Therapy. For this, a questionnaire composed of twelve multiple-choice questions was applied, involving questions related to the importance of Obstetric Physical Therapy, the professional's performance during the gestational stages, the physical therapist's competences in his clinical practice, and also the level of personal interest in area of Obstetrics by the students. Some of the points where students showed less knowledge were about the role of the physical therapist in preparing for cesarean/surgical delivery, in reducing the number of this type of delivery, in the treatment of conditions such as urinary incontinence and breastfeeding. It is essential that students can have more prior contact with the subject during graduation, so that a greater number can adhere to the area in their professional lives. Consequently, with a greater number of trained professionals, more women will have the opportunity to enjoy all these benefits and experience the healthiest and most enjoyable gestational period possible.