Identidade e empoderamento : Grupo Maternati e a humanização do parto na cidade de Maringá

Abstract

The starting point for this work is the practice, the experience and the discourse of the members of Maternati group that gathers women interested in reaching humanized childbirth in Maringá city. Declaring their preference for natural labour the group states in their meetings a discussion that coherent with the themes and values announced by obstetrics vanguards and lately reitereited by the humanization movement for birth. That network including professionals and women discusses since the nineties the legitimary and the results of excessive medicalization of childbirth and the feminine body. With the discourse that labour in not only a medical act the participants of Maternati group are critical to the presente model with depersonalizes woman, imposes standardizes rotines to intervene in the labour birth and presents as a given idea risk, fear and pain related to chilbirth. To question and give a new meaning to suck a practice those women articulate multiple discourses that strengthen their identities. Among them we perceive feminist proposals of autonomy, liberty and body possession by woman, as a result of feminist movement on values about humanized chilbirth and consequently on the group. The empowerment speech is the core of women's reports, that is why we go along its theoricals ways and practical limitation. Women who are involved in humanized labour identify themselves very seriously with nature or "natural procedures". In oposition to modern rational sight in these groups the concept of nature has elements which add value to it. Our hypothesis stands that the symbolic discourse of nature in relation to labour intends to be an alternative to the prevailing system that considers chilbirth a dangerous pathological phenomenon. To legitimate their choises the group dialogs witch critical currents in conventional medicine to denounce its technocratical and interventionist nature. In this sense we also emphasize doula's work: who are main mediators betwen the ideals of humanization and women interested chilbirth because they are responsible ones for the formation of groups like Maternati and their contribution to build different identities starting from this project.