Abstract

MONTES MUNOZ, Mª Jesús. Pregnant bodies and social order: Discourses and practices during the pregnancy. Index Enferm [online]. 2008, vol.17, n.1, pp.25-29. ISSN 1699-5988.

Justification: Through the prenatal visits, the vision of a lacking and vulnerable body in what you can justify the control that it’s being subjected to is reforced, at the same time that you remember the maternal function of the women. Aim: analyze the representations that can be detached from the gestant bodies. Methodology: qualitative with the observation technics and interview with fourteen women during their first pregnancy, three midwives and three obstetricians. Results: The meetings where about the body and its finality to ensure the baby’s health. The body is always seen with mistrust, as a "suspicious body" because of its deficiencies, its capacity to create risks and its unpredictability. This mistrust increases the women insecurity. Another interpretation that you can come up is that the body is a "responsible body", the self-control of the women in their maternal function. Conclusion: We should take conscience on the social control’s functions through the prenatal visits and promote horizontal relationships where the women can participate as capable subjects, responsibles of their decisions and their own lives.

Keywords : social control; body; pregnancy.