A slash in the soul: How parturients and "doulas" mean the obstetric violence that experience

Abstract

This article aims to understand how women (parturients and doulas) mean the obstetric violence they experience. The study was carried out from the analysis of the narratives of three parturients and two doulas about the assistance experienced in the largest maternity hospital in Paraiba in 2017. The five women attended the meetings of a group of pregnant women, in which information was exchanged on the ideal assistance from the precepts of the humanization of childbirth and birth. Information and empowerment, crucial elements in the humanization agenda, were not enough to ensure that these women were not violated. On the contrary, they experience their invisibility as subjects, while their bodies are objectified and transformed into instruments for teaching. The information, which should have been a tool for guaranteeing rights worked to instrumentalize violence.