Cuidados obstétricos na atenção primária à saúde em tempos de pandemia

Abstract

Objective: To characterize the puerperal women included in the study as well as to understand the obstetric care they received in PHC during Covid-19 pandemic, considering their fears and concerns and the difficulties they faced in the search for obstetric care. Methods: This is a qualitative study, with semi-structured interviews, recorded and transcribed, carried out with puerperal women who were assisted in PHC in 2020 and 2021, in a municipality in the São José do Rio Preto region. They were asked about the difficulties in prenatal care, childbirth and the puerperium. Thematic Analysis proposal, according to Braun & Clarke (2006) was used for data analysis and interpretation. This establishes three stages for analyzing the content collected through semi-structured interviews, namely, the pre-analysis phase, the material exploration phase and the phase of treatment of the results obtained and interpretation. The interviews were transcribed and submitted for analysis in an Excel spreadsheet to organize the transcribed material. This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee (CEP) of the São José do Rio Preto School of Medicine (FAMERP), under opinion no. 5.938.864 and CAAE: 66402522.0.0000. 5415. Results: Eight puerperal women were interviewed. No illiterate participants were identified with regard to level of schooling, and only one primigravida participant with regard to previous pregnancy. All the women interviewed reported that they had been working with the health team for more than 12 months and had a partner who provided support during the puerperium. Based on the content of the interviewees' speeches, four axes of analysis were identified: (i) understanding of the postpartum period; (ii) experience with prenatal care in primary care; (iii) experience with the postpartum period in primary care and (iv) the experience of pregnancy and the puerperium during the pandemic. In general, they mentioned some vulnerabilities in relation to the pandemic when describing their experiences of obstetric care during prenatal care, childbirth and the puerperium. They emphasized the good quality of care provided by the professionals involved in the different phases of care and expressed fear and insecurity about Covid-19, mainly due to the restrictions it has caused. Final considerations: In the Brazilian context, this research has pointed out to the importance of the issue and the need to broaden knowledge about obstetric care in times of outbreaks and other health crises, so that it is possible to implement timely and adequate measures to manage care during the pregnancy-puerperal cycle, as well as to improve working conditions for the professionals involved.