Abstract
To be aware of the care rituals developed by families when preparing for home birth during the gestational process. Qualitative and ethnographic research developed with families during the gestational process. We adopted the observation-participation-reflection model, and the analysis was performed according to ethnonursing. Care rituals are related to the choice of home as a place for childbirth, being characterized as a family's rite of separation to experience this process. Other care rituals involved the preparation of the family and the eldest child as well as the home, the body, and the mind of the pregnant woman, and the choice of destination of the placenta. We must understand the birth process beyond the biological perspective, considering women and their family as a whole, within a cultural context with their beliefs and values.
Highlights
OBJECTIVEFor a long time, childbirths occurred predominantly at home, which, overall, was regarded as natural by society
To be aware of the care rituals developed by families, during the gestational process, when preparing for home birth
The knowledge acquisition of the families was established, in our study, as a tool to support decision-making, since this strategy is the most appropriate way for claiming and achieving a safer and more respectful delivery method within the Brazilian reality(7,12). Other factors, such as education, socioeconomic conditions, life story, childbirth reports shared between generations, knowledge and stories about the conditions of childbirth assistance and access to information(13), in addition to previous experiences, medical power and that of the own family’s, lack of dialogue in prenatal care, interest, curiosity, and the cultural basis influence the choice of vaginal birth(14)
Summary
OBJECTIVEFor a long time, childbirths occurred predominantly at home, which, overall, was regarded as natural by society. The childbirth process consisted of a rite of passage for women and their families(1), and not a medical act. Before the institutionalization of labor, procedures such as episiotomy, shaving, enema, and childbirth induction began to be routinely adopted, without these practices being previously evaluated by scientific evidence(2-3). Such excess of interventions, in addition to the impersonality of health professionals and the high demand of work, attributed new meanings to obstetric care(4), which quickly reverberated in the dehumanization of the care and in situations of obstetric violence(3). Changes in the childbirth process have been sought through medicalization(5)
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