Abstract:

Based on two ethnografic research projects with young working-class women assisted by public health services in Recife and Rio de Janeiro, this article we analyse the relationships between these women and health professionals during pregnancy. We focus on how prenatal consultations became a regulation apparatus not only for body behaviours and practices linked to “self care” and “the one to come” but also for parental relationships. As a result of this focus, we can observe four sanitary regulation techniques: assignation to motherhood, construction of a “child project”, discussion groups and the use of the category “risk”. In conclusion, we put in perspective the disciplinary force of the apparatus in order to understand how the experiences of pregnancy are built by the women themselves and to illustrate the changes occurring in the regulation methods.

Keywords:
Prenatal; Working-class; Regulation; Body; Parentality