A puericultura em revista

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the impact of feminine magazines in the constitution of well-child care as a specific area of knowledge and medical practice in the first decades of the 20th century in Brazil and the new feminine social role: the modern mother. Taking as a point of departure the identification of periodic press as a privileged way to spread science among society, we analyze the cultural mediation role performed by two feminine magazines of that period – Vida Doméstica and Revista Feminina – in building of a new maternity model, in scientific basis. The scientific maternity was the main subject of a negotiated alliance process held between doctors and Brazilian high urban class women, with great consequences to both.