Doulas as devices for humanization of hospital delivery: from volunteering to commercialization

Abstract

The article analyzes, from the perspective of the doulas, its insertion in childbirth care in a public hospital in João Pessoa. This is a qualitative study, which used the Tenda do Conto with six doulas, for data production, in 2017. The insertion of the doulas in the hospital was not a result of a change in the assistance paradigm, producing resistance. In a hostile scenario to their performance, doulas act as a trigger for tensions between divergent care models, which generates suffering in the doulas themselves, demanding strategies of coping, namely: withdraw from volunteering; become institutionalized; or be co-opted by the humanizing delivery market in the private sphere.