The art of growing hard without loosing tenderness: midwifery and the use of technologies in planned homebirths

Abstract

Introduction: Given the intense medicalization of childbirth and the hegemony of a technocratic model, there is a growing importance of professional midwives to promote safe pregnancy and childbirth with minimal interventions. Objective: This study aimed to identify the technologies present in the suitcases of certified midwives graduated from University of São Paulo. Methodology: It consists of a descriptive-exploratory study, with a qualitative approach. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with five midwives between August 2020 and May 2021, in a virtual environment. The material was analyzed using dialogical maps. Results: A very heterogeneous range of technologies was identified, which included soft, soft-hard and hard technologies. Soft technologies include affection, effective communication (knowing how to speak, knowing how to listen) and bonding. Soft-hard technologies include basic disciplines, scientific evidence, experience, and intuition. Finally, hard technologies include instruments produced by human activity, in addition to the use of the materiality of the body. Conclusions: Midwives tend to use hard technologies as they are unable to achieve the desired effect with the soft technologies they had available, although they use their interrelational resources throughout the entire process. Furthermore, to employ such technological resources, professionals use very different kinds of knowledge, without hierarchizing them.