Challenges in forming a group of pregnant women in a Family Health Unit

• Main Authors: Marina Sanches Silvestrini, Maria Luiza Mangino Cardoso, Bruna Rangel Rego
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Federal de São Carlos 2014-12-01
• Series: Cadernos de Terapia Ocupacional
• Subjects: Occupational Therapy; Pregnant Women; Human Resources
• Online Access: http://www.cadernosdeterapiaocupacional.ufscar.br/index.php/cadernos/article/view/1115
• ISSN: 0104-4931; 2238-2860

This report describes the experience of undergraduate students in Occupational Therapy, who are grantees of the Program of Education through Work - Health (PET - Saúde), inserted in a Family Health Unit in the municipality Sao Carlos, Sao Paulo state, Brazil, in the process of planning and forming a group of pregnant women, their families, and practitioners responsible for the entire process of their prenatal care. The report describes the experience revealing the challenges, the relationship with the team, as well as its importance to the effectiveness of the group. The final product of this process was the creation of a space for reflection, dialogue, exchanges and activities aimed at this population, who experiences an intense period, full of anxieties, fears and expectations. This population deserves more specific, integral and differential attention that proposes to look at these pregnant women not only in their biological contexts, but with an overall view. In order to demonstrate the importance of spaces such as this, we relied on the professionals’ perceptions and in the statements and behaviors of the pregnant women and family participants. This way, we could also observe the transformation in the way of thinking of a healthcare team.