Abstract

CAIRES, Tharine Louise Gonçalves  and  VARGENS, Octavio Muniz da Costa. Exclusion of the father from the delivery room: a discussion from the perspective of gender and power. Rev. Enf. Ref. [online]. 2012, vol.serIII, n.7, pp.159-168. ISSN 0874-0283.  https://doi.org/10.12707/RIII1163.

At the beginning of the 20th century, women were considered incapable and inferior, dominated by their husbands. Men were excluded from events related to reproduction and children’s education. Childbirth was a domestic ritual attended by midwives. Its transfer to the hospital placed the woman as protagonist in the process of giving birth, and nowadays the doctor is the central actor. The objective of the study was to analyze the process of the father’s exclusion from his child’s birth from the perspective of power in the context of the medicalization of childbirth. It was a systematic literature review analyzing 16 texts concerning the period from 2000 to 2010. The texts were classified according to the thematic nucleus: relationship of the man’s power over the woman, transition of childbirth from home to hospital, father’s exclusion from the hospital environment, medical dominance over the feminine body and the father’s (re)insertion in the childbirth process. It was concluded that a man’s reinsertion into the process of his child’s birth is not a reality, despite being promoted by the Brazilian Health Ministry. It is necessary that health professionals and services become aware of the importance and benefits of this attitude for the humanization of childbirth.

Keywords : humanizing delivery; paternity; obstetrical nursing; woman’s health.

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