Child Health Care: Practices of a Brazilian Indigenous Population.

PURPOSE: To understand the health care practices related to children from birth to five years old in an Indigenous population of the state of São Paulo, Brazil. DESIGN: The theoretical and ethnographic methodological framework and the Observation-Participation-Reflection model (OPR) were used for data collection. In total, 20 families with 24 children were observed. RESULTS: The belief in the healing power of teas generally overlapped the use of drugs. Herbs in the form of extracts or oils were used in the umbilical stump dressing and baths. The Indigenous people were assisted by professionals in their own communities and nearby urban areas. CONCLUSION: The care in daily life of Indigenous families was still informal and provided by women, with beliefs and customs that should be considered by health care professionals in transcultural care.

[Living the birth process in a humanized assistance model]. / Vivenciando a experiência da parturição em um modelo assistencial humanizado.

That was a qualitative study with phenomenological approach that aimed at understanding women's post-partum experiences in a humanized assistance. Data were collected in a hospital from São Paulo, SP, Brazil. Eight women in post-partum period were interviewed. From data analysis two themes were extracted: Bearing the labor and Having the opportunity rescuing autonomy, being disclosed the phenomenon: "Living the ambiguity on the birth process in a humanized assistance model". The reports show feelings like pain, fear and anxiety, however, it allowed a participation and rescuing autonomy. Although the study have been realized in a humanized assistance, the women's experiences reveals that they are far from an effective humanization, according to its principles. This study can be used to guide educative actions target to humanization and to generate managerial changes.