Abstract

CAMPIGLIA, Mercedes. Erosionar la institución. Nueva antropol [online]. 2017, vol.30, n.86, pp.54-77. ISSN 0185-0636.

Biomedicine posits institutionalized attention for births which leads to hyper-medicalization of the event. This results in an iatrogenic increase in the number of procedures which end up being treated counter to the patient’s health. In the biomedical model the actors are limited to their organic and productive condition while their opinion is silenced, thus erasing their subjectivity.

The proposal to “humanize” birth, a school of thought arising within medicine, points to restoring the subjective character of the birthing act, giving women an active role in advocacy for their own health. This text relates a procedural experience of maternity whose objective is to “humanize” birth and the results obtained allude to the reinsertion of the subjective order in institutional life.

Keywords : birth; institutionalization; obstetric violence; humanized delivery; doula; cesarean.