ABSTRACT
This research aims to offer a rationale on the subjection of women to the medical-hospital authority during pregnancy and childbirth. The study analyzes the current obstetric system in Brazil from a qualitative approach, based on narratives of twenty-four women who tell stories about how they felt objectified at the time of childbirth. The analysis shows that this system has been constituted in a colonized and violent way. The relationship of these women with the obstetric system is ruled by every form of body objectification, obstetric violence, and non-attendance to the woman’s wishes as the protagonist of childbirth. Professional tutelage prevails to the detriment of the body’s knowledge, of sensitiveness, of what is natural. The alternative to excessive medical/hospital authority in the traditional process has been the search for humanized teams, dismantling the hegemonic procedure from the desire to live childbirth as an experience of protagonism.
Keywords:
body colonization; objectification; subjection; childbirth; obstetric violence