An Analysis of Ethnic-Racial Policies in the Training of Obstetricians

Abstract

Despite being the majority in the country, the black population is exposed to various forms of racism on a daily basis. Among these, institutional racism, which can be understood as the failure of institutions to promote an adequate service, for ethnic-racial and cultural reasons, lacking assistance to this population, for example, with regard to access to health care services. Epidemiological data show that the black population has worse health indicators. Black women exemplify the concept of intersectionality, being susceptible to gender oppression, racism and socioeconomic inequalities, especially during the pregnancy-puerperal cycle, thus leading the rates of obstetric violence and maternal morbidity and mortality. The objective of this article is to analyze the training of midwives, based on ethnic-racial policies in education and health. Therefore, a qualitative-quantitative research was carried out, through an online questionnaire, which was applied to students and graduates of the Obstetrics Course, School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities, University of São Paulo (EACH-USP ). Based on the results collected, there was a need to expand the space for teaching ethnic-racial issues in health and, in particular, in the graduation of midwives. For this, the creation of a discipline was proposed: Ethnic-racial relations in health, which seeks to contribute to the graduation of health professionals capable of providing humanized assistance to the reproductive health of black women.