MEDICALIZATION OF CHILDBIRTH: REFLECTION ON (BIO)POWER OVER THE FEMALE BODY

For many years, women were assisted in their delivery by other women, who accompanied them in the postpartum period and in the care of the newborn. With the birth of modern medicine, the parturition scenario, previously performed at home by midwives, came to be controlled by the State and to be performed by doctors in institutions with a high level of intervention. The doctor becomes the center of attention, and the woman becomes a passive subject, without a voice, and without decision-making power over her body. This essay aims to reflect on the medicalization of childbirth from the conception of biopower proposed by Michel Foucault (2010), for whom biopower constitutes a government of life to create docile and economically active bodies. For that, research strategies were used in the following databases focused on the medicalization of childbirth: LILACS, Web Of Science, Bdenf, SCOPUS and PubMed/MedLine. Other authors such as Costa (2012), Tempesta et al (2021), Rohden (2000), Mauadie (2018), Velho (2019) also help us in our reflection. As a result, it is observed that the action of biopower on the woman's body becomes the medicalization of childbirth, which aims to control maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality rates.