Educação em saúde e vivências para humanização da assistência perinatal: reflexões a partir do projeto Carmelina em Luminárias, Minas Gerais

Abstract

The birthing experience has undergone significant transformations in recent decades, shifting from a collective, feminine, and natural event to a medicalized, controlled, and solitary act, rendering women into passive objects subjected to invasive, routine, and often violent procedures, directly impacting their postpartum health. Despite the recent emergence of Humanized Birth Care, this remains a distant reality for most Brazilian women. In light of this, the Carmelina Project, an Action-Research initiative conducted in partnership with the Luminárias-MG Municipal Health Department, combined education and healthcare through actions and experiences that contributed to the perinatal care of mothers using the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS) in this small town. Therefore, this dissertation aims to present the collective experience of this action-research and the lived experiences of the Carmelina Project, intertwining the theories that underpinned this work. To this end, employing the narrative resource of "Escrevivência", this research was reported in the hope that its story will inspire and guide the steps of more works like this, seeking to contribute to ensuring that more women receive dignified, supportive, and emancipatory perinatal care.