Abstract
This is a qualitative study that analyzed the professionals’ perceptions of imprisoned mother’s babies. Professionals from São Paulo (Brazil) from the legal, public policy, social, health, education, security and religious volunteering areas were interviewed. The results showed that the romantic look of motherhood survives behind bars. Thus, the baby mobilizes feelings of love, compassion and joy. However, feelings of anger, sadness and pity also emerge for encountering babies in a place of segregation and punishment. The baby may be stuck with the stigma of the mother’s criminality, represented with hopelessness and prejudice by some professionals with the expression ‘evil seed’. Professionals feel touched by the prison maternity scenario, expressing contradictory feelings of sadness and joy, hope and hopelessness, anger and compassion. The subjective implications and representations about the baby in a prison context, therefore, support the care offered by the professionals, their attitudes towards the prisoners, the actors involved and the future actors: the babies.
mother-child relationships; prisons; mental health; public health