Cesarean sections, perfecting the technique and standardizing the practice: an analysis of the book Obstetrícia, by Jorge de Rezende.

Andreza Rodrigues Nakano,Claudia Bonan,Luiz Antônio Teixeira

doi:10.1590/s0104-59702016000100010

Andreza Rodrigues Nakano, Claudia Bonan + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/s0104-59702016000100010

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Abstract

This article discusses the development of techniques for cesarean sections by doctors in Brazil, during the 20th century, by analyzing the title "Operação Cesárea" (Cesarean Section), of three editions of the textbookObstetrícia, by Jorge de Rezende. His prominence as an author in obstetrics and his particular style of working, created the groundwork for the normalization of the practice of cesarean sections. The networks of meaning practiced within this scientific community included a "provision for feeling and for action" (Fleck) which established the C-section as a "normal" delivery: showing standards that exclude unpredictability, chaos, and dangers associated with the physiology of childbirth, meeting the demand for control, discipline and safety, qualities associated with practices, techniques and technologies of biomedicine.

Highlights

The global increase in the number of C-sections performed has been related to a series of factors, both clinical and non-clinical, among which is the fact that health care practices depend on technological innovation, the value attributed to these innovations, the fact that women demand this procedure, as well as medical-legal issues (Carbone, 2009)
By focusing on the reality in Brazil, this article elaborates the theory that the medical-obstetric thought process developed in this country, and which is materialized in a series of practices, techniques, technologies and knowledge, has created the means which has normalized the use of C-sections
The fact that this book, which has been seen as a benchmark in the teaching of obstetrics in Brazil since the 1960s, is still relevant today, as well as the representativeness of this author in this particular field, are the reasons why this source was chosen for an analysis of the construction of collective of thought in relation to cesarean sections as being a natural form of birth

Summary

Luiz Antônio Teixeira

NAKANO, Andreza Rodrigues; BONAN, Claudia; TEIXEIRA, Luiz Antônio. Cesarean sections, perfecting the technique and standardizing the practice: an analysis of the book Obstetrícia, by Jorge de Rezende, História, Ciências, Saúde – Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, v.23, n.1, jan.-mar.

Theoretical perspective and methodology

Jorge de Rezende and obstetrics in Brazil

The history of cesarean sections as told in Obstetrícia

Findings

Final considerations