Articulating gender and health: professional qualification within the scope of Rede Cegonha/ Articulando genero e saude: formacao de profissionais no ambito da Rede Cegonha

Educational demands from Rede Cegonha health teams at Metropolitan Region II of Rio de Janeiro inspired a University Extension Project with the goal of contributing to health care improvement. We present a critical and reflective description of this initiative, underscore its processuality and point out its challenges, limits, and potentialities. The approach to gender as a cross-sectional theme, the shared production of knowledge in the educational process pedagogical and the work in a health network have been particularly addressed in the pedagogical policy underlying this study. Based on participatory methodologies, five meetings were held, approaching the following themes in a theoretical and practical perspective: gender and sexuality; violence; feeding and nutrition; health care during pregnancy, at childbirth and until children are two years old. There were varied degrees of gender crossings in the personal and professional lives of the participants, most of whom were women: for example, from restrictions to their choice of education or career opportunities to the current situation in which women are the sole or primary breadwinners but experience inequalities in gendered division of labor. In health services provided to pregnant women, their partners and children, one could still see potentially discriminatory practices; inexperience/embarrassment when dealing with new marital arrangements; feeding myths; reluctance to allow the father's presence and participation. Women's autonomy and right to choice and information were recurrently neglected--from the moment of forced fasting when she is admitted to hospital until the moment a cesarean section is induced. Therefore, it was concluded that it is crucial to include the theme of gender in health professional education and training programs, either at a specific point in time or throughout the whole program. Keywords: Gender and Health. Patient Health Care Team. Maternal and Child Health Services. Education. Partindo-se de demandas de formacao em saude situadas no processo de trabalho das equipes multiprofissionais envolvidas na implementacao da Rede Cegonha na Regiao Metropolitana II do Rio de Janeiro, realizou-se acao de extensao com objetivo de colaborar para melhoria do cuidado integral. Apresentase descricao critica e reflexoes sobre a acao, sublinhando sua processualidade e apontando dificuldades, limites e potencialidades. A abordagem de genero como tema transversal no processo ensino-aprendiza