Women's autonomy in the process of labour and childbirth: integrative literature review

Abstract

Objective: To identify the available evidence in scientific literature on healthcare practices that interfere with the autonomy of Brazilian women in the labour and delivery process.

Method: The search for papers was conducted in the databases LILACS, Scopus and PubMed, between 1996 and 2015, according to a guiding question and exclusion criteria, resulting in the selection of 22 papers to compose the analytic body.

Results: The main practices that favoured the exercise of women's autonomy were out-of-hospital care practices; care practices of support and comfort; and educational care practices. By contrast, the practices that limited autonomy were authoritarian care practices; standardised or routine care practices; care practices that intensify the painful sensation of childbirth; and impersonal and cold care practice.

Conclusion: There was an alarming contrast between the daily healthcare routine and ministerial recommendations.