1. 'Holy scan' or 'picture of the baby?' Biomedicalization and stratification in the use of obstetric ultrasound in Rio de Janeiro
- Author
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Lilian Krakowski Chazan and Livi Faro
- Subjects
Basic premise ,etnografias ,Social class ,lcsh:R131-687 ,ethnography ,03 medical and health sciences ,stratification ,History and Philosophy of Science ,Nursing ,lcsh:History of medicine. Medical expeditions ,Medicalization ,Medicine ,0601 history and archaeology ,030505 public health ,estudos sociotécnicos ,business.industry ,06 humanities and the arts ,General Medicine ,Obstetric ultrasound ,Technoscience ,ultrassom obstétrico ,biomedicalization ,Social stratification ,Expectant mothers ,estratificação ,obstetric ultrasound ,060105 history of science, technology & medicine ,Private healthcare ,socio-technical studies ,0305 other medical science ,business ,biomedicalização - Abstract
Resumo A partir de etnografias realizadas em serviços públicos e privados do Rio de Janeiro, sustentamos que a difusão do fenômeno de (bio)medicalização varia de acordo com o estrato social das gestantes, produzindo corpos fetais e gestantes, assim como processos gestacionais, totalmente diversos, dependendo da camada social das mulheres atendidas. Tomando a premissa fundamental de que a biomedicalização consiste em uma transformação no processo de medicalização pela incorporação crescente da tecnociência à biomedicina, o universo observado evidencia diferentes estágios dessa transformação, acompanhando, de modo consistente, a estratificação social das grávidas submetidas ao exame de ultrassom. Abstract Based on ethnographic studies conducted at public and private healthcare facilities in Rio de Janeiro, we argue that the dissemination of (bio)medicalization varies in accordance with the social stratum of the expectant mothers, thereby producing thoroughly distinct fetal and pregnant bodies, as well as different gestational processes. Starting from the basic premise that biomedicalization represents a transformation in the process of medicalization, characterized by the growing incorporation of technoscience into biomedicine, the observed universes displayed different stages in this transformation, consonant with the social stratification of the women who underwent the scans.
- Published
- 2016