Cíência e violência na história da obstetrícia na Bahia (1850-1940)

Abstract

This thesis is dedicated to the study of obstetric violence intertwined with the trajectory of medical science in Bahia, from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century. We approached different narratives by scholars from different areas of knowledge, such as doctors, historians, sociologists and anthropologists, to discuss protocols and transformations in childbirth models. This subject has been investigated in terms of gender, institutional violence, biopower, technocracy, medical practices and patriarchy. By rescuing the history of childbirth in Bahia, we sought to highlight the initial dynamics that propelled Brazil into the world leader in obstetric violence (in 2021, the Dominican Republic overtook Brazil in obstetric violence data). This work therefore maps out the history of the emergence of obstetrics and its "scientific" procedures with women, from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century in Brazil, with a focus on Bahia. Through bibliographical analysis and primary sources (Theses from the Bahia School of Medicine, Santa Casa Reports, Gazeta Médica Magazine, Bahia Newspapers and the Annual Memorial of the Bahia School of Medicine), we discuss the healing scenario in the West up to Bahia, the different medicinal doctrines, the popular agents of medical healing, the difficulties in the process of institutionalising modern obstetrics and its subsequent rise, the arrival of the "doctor" at the scenes of childbirth, the relationship of dispute between male doctors and midwives, the absence and exclusion of women in science and female medicine, surgical and interventionist procedures against women, the arrival of motherhood, the biomedical discourse on the female body and gender epistemologies. We found that the advent of modern obstetric science, contrary to what the triumphalism of the official history of medicine suggests, is directly related to the emergence of women's resistance movements against obstetric violence from the mid-twentieth century onwards, precisely because of the configuration of changes that, under the aegis of scientific discourse, caused more dissatisfaction and suffering than protection and health for women and their bodies. A critical review of the history of female medical science is thus drawn up, so that the issue of human suffering is not minimised or simplified, and so that we can collaborate in positively changing scientific exercise and practice.