This reflection aimed to show the productive restructuring dimensions achieved in Brazilian healthcare, discussing the nexuses between this phenomenon and the work in obstetrical nursing. Its construction was based on articles about productive restructuring and health available in the Virtual Health Library, reflecting the consequences on this speciality's caregiving process. We observed that the productive restructuring in health care may be seen under the health system management and work organization viewpoints. Despite the negative impacts in the field of work, there has been an appreciation of living labor in obstetrics in a context favorable to changes in labor care, through the introduction of obstetrical nursing and implementation of health care technologies. We conclude that, besides the focus on living labor and soft technologies, such concepts comprise technological innovation, as they have changed and resignified the way of providing care, thus beginning the process of the inversion of the technological core in obstetrics.
Obstetrical nursing; Work; Humanization of assistance; Politics; Women`s health