During the past 15 years Brazil has increased efforts to humanize maternal care within the Brazilian National Health System (SUS). Humanization efforts come along with de-medicalization of birth even if quality care and reduction of inequalities are still pressing matters in the country. For this qualitative study we interviewed ten women regarding their experiences of pregnancy and childbirth. The study took place in Brasília (DF) and women narrated their birth experiences at local hospitals or a birth center. Women were mostly satisfied with their attention during childbirth, specifically those giving birth at the birth center, in contrast to women giving birth at local hospitals. However, the humanization movement, essentializing women's bodies can also reproduce normative discourses that shape a sense of self-blame and disappointment if the ‘ideal birth is not achieved.
The case of Nicaraguan migrants in Costa Rica is emblematic of the issues that immigration generates in host countries. Undocumented Nicaraguan women seeking maternal care constitute a key challenge to the universal coverage of Costa Rica's health system. Can the long-standing commitment to universality, solidarity and equality expressed in the legislation be translated into practice? Discourses of health professionals in Costa Rica reveal a contradiction between merit and prejudice in prenatal and delivery care. Here, I present qualitative research based on semi-structured interviews with physicians and nurses at a Costa Rican National Hospital. The data show that migrant women, rejected from primary care, do find help in emergency services, but not without difficulties, as they must engage in individual negotiations centred on their bodies. The discourses of health providers reflect an ambivalence between the perceived undeservingness of undocumented migrant women and the medical realisation that two lives are at risk. While the foetus often evokes compassion, the mother commonly provokes repression, as specific and shifting rationalities reflect new moral regimes that are applied to this population. Women are perceived as being 'illegal', 'immoral' and 'irrational', and the baby, although legally Costa Rican due to jus solis policy, embodies 'the other'. Ultimately, otherness frames perceptions of deservingness of maternal care for undocumented migrant women in Costa Rica.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.