Abstract
Introduction:
the motherhood experience in prison involves a unique complexity due to psychosocial effects of imprisonment, which rebound in both the incarcerated mothers and professionals working in the prison system.
Objective:
to identify the ways of thinking, feeling, and acting of the professionals who deal with pregnant women and mothers with babies in prisons.
Methods:
qualitative research conducted in 2015 with data obtained by interviews with professionals who worked for prison units in the state of São Paulo. Data underwent thematic content analysis, based on Winnicott’s and Krech’s studies.
Results:
the analysis revealed that those professionals need to deal with institutional limitations and inmates’ social vulnerabilities. They relied on notions from their own working field, such as the social, legal, and religious spheres. Moreover, the professionals are driven by contradictory ideals grounded on human rights and on prison rigidity, which comes near to the punishment logic. Multidisciplinary meetings for critical reflections help overcoming these adversities.
Conclusion:
the collective sharing of helplessness and potentialities seems to enable new working reconfigurations and build an interdisciplinary action to face imprisonment institutional and psychosocial effects.
Keywords:
correctional institutions; prisoners; motherhood; worker; occupational health