The Rede Cegonha program, a Brazilian initiative targeting pregnant women and mothers who use the national healthcare system, was recently launched. This proposal seems to provide two possible interpretations. On the one hand, it implies important recognition of citizenship and puts the right to healthcare access into effect. On the other hand, its orientation, effectiveness and limits can be questioned, when and if points arise from theoretical discussions relating to plurality of the women's category and, especially, relating to criticism of Brazilian obstetric practices by followers of the ideas of humanized childbirth from around the year 2000 onwards. Considering that Brazil is the world record holder for the number of cesarean sections, this program is analyzed in the light of these two sources of discourse and starting from the tensions involved in medicine versus depersonalization and health versus disease, together with the current notions of person, body, experience and singularity.
Health public policy; Right to difference; Women's health; Individuality