THE STAGING OF CHILDBIRTH IN THE BRAZILIAN SOAP OPERA/A ENCENACAO DO PARTO NA TELEDRAMATURGIA BRASILEIRA

This article proposes to analyze scenes of childbirth presented by Brazilian soap operas, produced and broadcasted along the past four decades by the channel Rede Globo, aiming to identify the representation of normal birth and C-section in the corpus. We highlight that childbirth is a social and cultural event, being the subjectivities inscribed in it supported by gender relations. In this sense, the media represents an important arena where power disputes are materialized. For the empirical path, we have opted for two complementary methods, the Content Analysis based on a quantitative perspective, and the Analysis of Moving Images. As a main result, we identify that, although the frequency of normal birth in the corpus is higher, aspects associated to its representation, such as the place of birth, the pain expression, elements of religiously and characteristics of ethnicity and social class of the parturient, corroborate to position the C-section as the "ideal" form of giving birth. We have observed that an explicit apology for C-section was presented in a considerable part of the corpus. The cultural and symbolic legitimation of the surgical delivery by the soap opera deviates from the recommendations of the World Health Organization and contributes to build the collective imaginary regarding birth. Keywords: Childbirth. Soap opera. Representation. Content Analysis. Analysis of Moving Images. Este artigo propoe analisar cenas de parto apresentadas em telenovelas brasileiras, produzidas e veiculadas ao longo das ultimas quatro decadas pela Rede Globo de Televisao, com o objetivo de identificar a representacao do parto normal e da cesariana no corpus. Evidenciamos que o parto e um evento social e cultural e as subjetividades que nele se inscrevem se alicercam nas relacoes de genero e que os espacos midiaticos se mostram importantes arenas onde disputas de poder ganham materialidade. Para a trajetoria empirica, optamos por dois metodos complementares, a Analise de Conteudo a partir de uma perspectiva quantitativa e a Analise de Imagens em Movimento. Como resultado principal, identificamos que embora a frequencia do parto normal seja maior no corpus, aspectos associados a sua representacao, como o local de parto, a expressao da dor, elementos de religiosidade em cena e caracteristicas etnico-raciais e de classe da parturiente, corroboram para elevar a cesariana ao modo "ideal" de parir. Observamos que a apologia explicita a cesariana esteve presente em par