“TRADITIONAL MIDWIVES: SOCIAL INCLUSION AND QUALITY ON CHILDBIRTH ASSISTANCE OF BRAZILIAN PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE”

The maternal and newborn mortality rates in our country are still too high. Such rates show a situation of violation of human rights of women and children, as well as a serious public health problem that affects the most vulnerable part of the population the most: poor women and children. In Brazil, even though the majority of childbirths happens in hospitals, home childbirths assisted by traditional midwives is a reality, especially in the north and northeast regions, in rural, riverside and forest areas of difficult access and in traditional indigenous or quilombo-descended populations.
However, due to the fact that the ethnical and cultural diversity is not respected – it is not included in public health service nor recognized as a health activity thar occurs in practice – it happens in makeshift conditions and in isolation, without support from the women and children health services. The great majority of the midwives does not receive training and does not have basic tools to assist home childbirths, as well as is not paid by their services.
Therefore, ours is a project that articulates many governmental (federal, state, municipal levels and other agencies like DSEI/FUNASA) and non-governmental actors (indigenous women associations, mostly) and contributes to the development of actions to enact public policies, with direct participation from the population and in a way that could be replicated in other regions of Brazil.
Grupo Curumin has always worked articulating the initiatives of women groups. From reports and experiences involving abuse, bad assistance and low-quality obstetrics services from many women who were and are part of Grupo Curumin and our partners, we saw a necessity and initiated the work with the midwives, understanding that they are important elements for the exercise of rights from women and children.