The objective of this research was to understand the subtile faces of violence, power and symbolic domination present in the actions and health practices of various professionals of the area, directed to women in the situation of pregnancy, delivery and post-partum. The theoretical referentials adopted to interpret the data was Pierre Bourdieu's economy of symbolic changes. Some reflections on autonomy and heteronomy, power, violence and force as analyzed by Chauí were also incorporated. The subjects of this research were eleven women in situation of pregnancy, delivery and post-partum admitted to a public health service. In order to obtain the data, I used the interview and the participant observation of the relation studied. I concluded that in the relations that occur between patients and medical team, symbolic elements are present and they contribute greatly to the invisibility of this modality of violence, which is greatly present in health practices.
Woman; Power; Symbolic violence; Public health services