Como você sabe? Dialogando nas fronteiras do saber obstétrico autorizador

Abstract

This theses aims to contribute to the analysis of the prenatal obstetrical field concerning its object which is the transmission and circulation of the authoritative knowledge from technological mediated experiences with cardiotocography in a local institutional context. The main purpose is to show how the obstetrical field is built within the affirmation of the fetus/baby as its dominant symbol. To reach this consent I turned my gaze to the dynamics of cardiotocography and its relationship between the authoritative knowledge and the contextual symbolism. Although the authoritative knowledge was a concept originally intended to explain the dynamics of the obstetrical field in regard to technology, it was only attributed to medical professionals who were able to deal with the obstetrical technology, disregarding the multiple agents who embody knowledge and experience which eventually enact a central hybrid category attached to the obstetrical technology. The methodology was based on the participant observation of a public maternity in the city of Rio de Janeiro, where I also interviewed five medical professionals to whom the authoritative knowledge is attributed. Their representations disposed four categories: their history, values, technological instruments and emotions, which are all, embodied around the relationship of knowledge and experience with the fetus/baby care. These categories were used in the fieldwork analysis to verify the dominant symbolism concerning the fetus/baby and also to demonstrate the construction of a new category the fetal vitality that explains the movement of the obstetrical field towards perinatology.