Entre o parto e a benção: memórias e saberes de mulheres que partejam

Abstract

This study aimed to reflect on the know-how of women who make childbirth from the life narrative of a midwife in the city of Bragança (Pará). For this, we used the concept of memory and identity in Halbawchas (2006) and Bosi (1994). Understanding this occupation inserted in the logic of popular culture, we used the concepts of Culture in Burke (1989) and Cush (1999) and Popular Culture in Bosi (1992), always in view of the heterogeneity. The questioning of this subject was only made possible by a more sensitive and approached look on these subjects, thus the ethnography offered the subsidies needed in this respect, supported in the fomentations of Clifford (2002) and Laplantine (1995). And for being a tacit knowledge, the oral history was the methodological basis that supported all the research, being constantly applied the methodological guidelines proposed by Thompson (1992) and Delgado (2006). The research enabled us to understand that there is a representation made by these women and society on the work of midwifery, and that it constitutes a gift, or learning acquired through contact with the oldest. The importance of this study is given in the fact that there are many social subjects who routinely construct their knowledge, but because of the hierarchical way the society was designed, they were left out. Also, it is that because of the process of Childbirth Humanization policy, it has been realized that many professionals involved in women's health have been calling themselves midwives, which denotes an attempt to the appropriation and homogenization of knowledge that is specific.